The Fondazione Fiera Milano’s “Giampiero Cantoni” acquisition fund valued at 100,000 euros – will return for miart 2017

Prizes and acquisitions

The Fondazione Fiera Milano’s “Giampiero Cantoni” acquisition fund valued at 100,000 euros – will return for miart 2017
A new partnership for the beart/emergent prize
The herno and rotary prizes, which have become traditions at the milan event, are also to return

“We are pleased to confirm our commitment to supporting miart 2017 through our acquisition fund,” said Giovanni Gorno Tempini, president of Fondazione Fiera Milano. “Miart has now become an international centre for the entire industry. This year, under the new artistic direction that taps into the legacy of the work we’ve done thus far, the show will further expand its horizons to look at the many different dimensions of the art market, looking at both historic and more recent artistic experiences.
In these five years of acquisitions, Fondazione Fiera Milano has wanted and continues to want to support miart as an international modern and contemporary art fair for Milan. Furthermore, the Fondazione now has its own collection that has attained a certain cultural ‘heft,’ with works on display in our offices in the 1922 Palazzina degli Orafi.” 

This is how Giovanni Gorno Tempini, the new president of Fondazione Fiera Milano, confirmed that the organisation would once again allocate €100,000 for the “Giampiero Cantoni” acquisition fund for miart 2017, the 22nd edition of the international modern and contemporary art fair in Milan. Thanks to this fund, the Fondazione Fiera Milano acquires works of modern and contemporary art in the stands of miart that then go on to enrich the Fondazione’s collection.  
The jury that will work alongside the president of Fondazione Fiera Milano, Giovanni Gorno Tempini, to make its selections is increasingly more international: Martin Clark, director of the Kunsthalle in Bergen; Nicholas Cullinan, director of the National Portrait Gallery of London; and Letizia Ragaglia, director of Museion in Bolzano. They will be tasked with choosing the works to be acquired, with a greater focus on more experimental pieces and works from new generations. 

The various prizes that have been a part of miart during the last few editions will also return for the 2017 edition. These prizes have helped make the modern and contemporary art fair in Milan the important international event that it is today. 

The Emergent Prize is taking a new path. It has now become the BeArt/Emergent Prize thanks to a partnership with BeArt, a crowdfunding platform created for the world of art with the objective being to connect artists with individuals and companies interested in supporting innovative projects. Supporting this prize is in line with the culture and values of BeArt, a platform conceived and developed specifically to finance contemporary art and culture projects for all up-and-comers in the industry. The prize, worth €4,000, in the Emergent area will go to the winning gallery deemed best at promoting young artists. The winning gallery will be chosen by an international jury made up of Anna Gritz, curator at the Kunst-Werke - Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin; Sam Thorn, director of the Nottingham Contemporary in Nottingham; and Balthazar Lovay, director of Fri Art in Freiburg.

The Herno Prize is also returning, and this year marks its third edition. In 2017, a brand new international jury – made up of Nicolaus Schafhausen, director of the  Kunsthalle in Vienna; Anne Pontigne, an independent curator who has worked with Le Consortium in Dijon and the Cranford Collection in London; and Suzanne Cotter, director of the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Porto –  will award a €10,000 prize to the stand with the best display. The prize will go to the stand that has been conceived, designed and curated down to the smallest detail as a display able to combine the highest levels of refinement, quality and care.   

Finally, the Rotary Club Milano Brera for Art Prize, now in its ninth edition, will also be given out during miart 2017. The jury – made up of Laura Cherubini, professor of contemporary art history at the Accademia di Brera in Milan and vice president of MADRE in Naples; Christian Marinotti, publisher, collector, former president of the Rotary Club Milano Brera and founder of the prize; and Cristiana Perrella, curator and professor of phenomenology of contemporary art at IED in Rome – will be tasked with acquiring a work by a young artist at the show. This piece will then be donated to MAC, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Milan.