Swedbank Art Award

The Swedbank Art Award was established in 2000. At the time it was called Hansapank art award and during the first years it focused only on Estonia.

The first award went to Marko Laimre (2000), the subsequent recipients were Ene-Liis Semper (2001) and Marko Mäetamm (2002). In 2003, the opportunity to compete for the award was expanded to include artists from all Baltic countries; the award winner for 2003 was the Lithuanian artist Artūras Raila. In the following years, the Latvian artist Gints Gabrāns (2004), Mark Raidpere from Estonia (2005), Valdas Ozarinskas from Lithuania (2006) and Miks Mitrevics from Latvia (2008) received the award.

Supported by its expansion to all Baltic countries, the Hansapank Art Award developed into one of the most activating and vitalizing forces for the art scene of the region.

After announcing the winner for 2006, a pause was taken in order to discuss as to what direction the successfully established art award could develop in the future. The shared objective for both the Kumu Art Museum and representatives of the present-time Swedbank was to take the art award to a new level that would add to its international importance and prominence, as well as to develop a structure to increase the prestige and transparency of the award.

In the previous years, an international jury met at the Kumu Art Museum and selected one of the local nominees from the three Baltic countries. In addition to the award of 5,000 euros, the recipient also got an opportunity to hold a solo exhibition in all three Baltic countries within the following year.

Starting from 2008, the Swedbank Art Award operates under a new name as well as with amended principles. The local jury presents the nominee of the particular country as before. But all nominees will hold a joint exhibition in one of the countries related to the art award. The Kumu Art Museum is the location for 2008 and for 2009 the exhibition place is in Riga City Exhibition Hall “Riga Art Space”. The nominees will submit a work to the exhibition, and the international jury will meet to evaluate them on the day before the official opening of the exhibition. At the opening ceremony, the recipient will be announced and awarded with 10,000 euros.

Contemporary artists from Baltic countries , Sweden and Russia are participating in the exhibition.

Throughout years the winner of the award has been chosen on the basis of the artist’s active performance during the previous year, the innovativeness of his or her works and their international intelligibility.