Cosmoscow Foundation announced winners of the first Curator of the Year award

The Cosmoscow Foundation has summed up the results of the Curator of the Year award. The aim of the new initiative is to celebrate the professional achievements of the curators and their contribution to the development of the contemporary art industry. According to the decision of the expert council, all five nominees became laureates in the first contest: Elena Kamenskaya, Ildar Galeev, Yulia Aksenova, Marina Bobyleva, Nadezhda Plungyan.

The Cosmoscow Foundation was established in 2017 to systematically support, develop and popularize contemporary art in Russia. The Curator of the Year award is part of this mission and will be held annually as part of the program "Support of free creativity and artworks' production".

The initiative has no age or artistic medium restrictions and is aimed at professionals with experience in implementing projects in various formats, from exhibitions to festivals. The selection of the winners was done by members of the award's expert council, which included key figures of the art community: Irina Saminskaya, project manager of the Winzavod Foundation; Maya Kowalski, curator, co-founder of the Terminal A Center and the Contour art fair; Kirill Mayevsky, curator, co-founder and Program Director of the Smena Center for Contemporary Culture; Irina Sedykh, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the OMK-Uchastie Charitable Foundation and founder of the Vyksa Festival.

The winners of the award received a grant from the Foundation to support their professional activities. 

Cosmoscow Foundation plans to hold the initiative annually. In the future, the format will evolve, and the mechanics of the competition will change — the expert council will select one winner from the list put to the vote.