by Rea Gierran
MADRID – LOEWE, a leading Spanish luxury fashion house based in Madrid launches the LOEWE Craft Prize, an annual international prize recognizing outstanding work of craftsmanship that pairs an original artistic concept with a modern application of traditional methods.
The award seeks to acknowledge and support international artisans who demonstrate exceptional ability to create objects of superior aesthetic value. Entries may be by an individual or a group. Businesses and mercantile companies of any kind are excluded. Each participant can present a piece of work or a collection. This should fall within an area of the applied arts and, as a guide, within the following categories: ceramics, bookbinding, enamelwork, jewellery, lacquer, metal, furniture, leather, textiles, glass, etc. Materials and products outside the categories listed are not excluded; they may be accepted by the Experts Panel if they comply with the aim and requirements of the competition.
Entries will be screened by distinguished personalities from the worlds of design, architecture, journalism, criticism and museum curatorship.
Selected work will be included in the exhibition ´LOEWE Craft Prize 2017´ and its accompanying catalogue, on view in Madrid in May 2017. The winner will receive 50, 000 euros plus the opportunity to travel to cities in Europe, Asia and the United States.
The LOEWE Craft Prize, which is supported by the LOEWE Foundation, seeks to promote creativity, support educational programs and safeguard heritage in the fields of poetry, dance, design and craft, photography, and architecture. By identifying work that reinterprets existing knowledge to make it relevant today while reflecting its maker’s personal language and distinct hand, the LOEWE aims to highlight the continuing contribution of craft to the culture of our time. The Foundation was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts, the highest honor granted by the Spanish Government, in 2002.
Entries must be submitted through the www.loewecraftprize.com webpage from 12 April 2016 to 7 November 2016 inclusive. For more details, visit their website at http://loewecraftprize.com
