BE OPEN, the social and cultural initiative committed to creativity and innovation, has unveiled its long-term programme to support young creatives and institutes. An extension of the Foundation’s Inside the Academy programme, which has created a series of independent projects linked to education and awards, this new extended scheme involves a ranking system, Master’s Program Prize and a Young Talent Award.
Academic and journalist Roberto Zancan, who is curating the programme, spoke about the scheme at an international press briefing on 6 June, held at Chelsea College of Art in London. He was joined by Jay Osgerby of Barber Osgerby and Shay Alkalay of Raw Edges who will be part of the judging panel for the Young Talent Award. Both spoke with enthusiasm about BE OPEN’s decision to support creative education in such a fundamental way and particularly about the opportunity that the funding supplied by the Young Talent Award would give designers to focus on their work for a full year, a crucial opportunity to develop one’s thinking and test creative ideas.
They also commended BE OPEN’s decision to create a ranking system that will offer a whole new perspective on design institutes. Zancan explained that as deputy editor of Domus, he had been involved in recently creating a new ranking for design institutes but that the BE OPEN initiative will allow him to go deeper into each institute’s coursework, yielding a whole new set of results about specific opportunities for specialist study. He also feels that it will bring a whole range of institutes to light that are not yet on the world map; he quoted examples in Bangkok and Melbourne that show a truly innovative approach to design teaching and expects to discover many more such during this project.
Gennady Terebkov, Director of BE OPEN, speaking on behalf of Elena Baturina, said: “BE OPEN is becoming an incubator for ideas, a fertile piece of land where young creatives can develop their visions for a better future. That is why BE OPEN is also launching a Business Development platform to collect all the great ideas we come across – through the awards schemes, as well as through the web and our social networks – and help visions come to life.” BE OPEN Business Development will facilitate research and development of innovative ideas through partnerships with leading academic institutions.
He quoted both Indian Nobel Prize winner Tagore “Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time” and referenced Benjamin Franklin’s “genius without education is like silver in the mine”, concluding with a rousing “Let us be miners!” to conclude the proceedings.
The Inside the Academy programme was announced during the BE OPEN Sound Portal program and Sound Symposium at UAL, events which bring the Foundation’s sensory year to a close. A new theme will be launched for 2013: the interaction between the North, South, East and West in terms of culture and the different creative approaches to dealing with critical urban issues of our time.
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