BE OPEN Art, an online art gallery set up by BE OPEN think tank, a humanitarian initiative
founded by international businessperson and philanthropist Elena Baturina, is running a new
competition for emerging artists, aimed to support those whose art best represents their
regional, cultural and ethnic identities – BE OPEN Regional Art.
With the beginning of year 2023, BE OPEN expert community team started selecting those of
the artists who best represent the artistic tradition of a certain region to feature in the BE OPEN
Art gallery and offer them greater visibility.
The second stage of the programme covers the countries of the Caribbean region over April –
June 2023: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada,
Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, etc.
Each regional stage lasts three months, therefore four stages will be run a year, with a winner
named for each of them. Works by 20 emerging artists are posted at the online gallery every
month, and a public vote selects the Regional Artist of the Month. At the end of each stage, one
of the monthly winners becomes the Artist of the Region, based on the amount of votes by the
public and BE OPEN’s art community members.
The regional winners get the money prize of EUR500, while a selection of artwork best
representing the region form an exhibition, in order to share the art with the wide public and
celebrate the artists involved.
The first stage of BE OPEN Regional Art was dedicated to the art of the Eastern Mediterranean
with such countries as Cyprus, Turkey, the Greek Dodecanese islands, and the countries of
Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Israel, Jordan and Egypt included. A selection of works made by the
results of monthly public votes will be shown at a bespoke exhibition that will be held in June
2023 in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Next in 2023, the focus of the competition will move to Southeast Asia and Central Africa at the
end of the year. The regional competition runs alongside the regular ongoing work of BE OPEN
Art, whose experts every month select 20 new artists for the gallery, using online voting to name
the Artist of the Month and the Artist of the Year.