BE OPEN Art is running a new competition for emerging artists, aimed to support those whose art best represents their regional, cultural and ethnic identities. The second stage of BE OPEN Regional Art started to cover 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.