Press Release

We celebrate the winners of the First, Second and Third Prizes in DESIGN EQUALITY with Innovation Competition

Lilia Valieva

Dear contestants and supporters,

BE OPEN thanks everyone who submitted their initiatives and thus contributed to this programme in an array of meaningful, innovative and passionate ways. We also thank everyone who has taken time and effort to review the submissions and cast their votes in the public vote section.

Thanks to hard and elaborate work by our amazing jury panel, and to the precious votes of the public, we are now able to announce the winners of the First, Second and Third prizes, as well as the Public Vote prize.

(more…)

BE OPEN celebrates the jury for Design Equality with Innovation: a competition for students dedicated to the UN Sustainable Development Programme

Lilia Valieva

According to the UN Department of Economic and Social Development, empowering women and girls plays a critical role in accelerating economic growth and social development. BE OPEN advocates that by dedicating the 2025/2026 competition to SDG#5, thus promoting the solutions that advance gender equality, meet the needs of women and girls, and promote women as innovators and entrepreneurs.

(more…)

BE OPEN Regional Art competition congratulates the Northeastern Africa winners

Lilia Valieva

BE OPEN Art, an online gallery set up by Elena Baturina’s humanitarian think-tank BE OPEN, continues to run BE OPEN Regional Art for the fourth year in 2026. The regional competition for emerging artists aims to support those whose art best represents their regional, cultural and ethnic identities, for the third year now.

For the purpose, the BE OPEN expert community selects those artists who best represent the artistic tradition of a certain region to feature in the BE OPEN Art gallery and offer them greater visibility. Thus, artworks by 20 new emerging artists appear in the online gallery every month, and a public vote selects the Regional Artist of the Month. At the end of the stage, one of the monthly winners gets the title of the Artist of the Region and a grant based on the amount of votes by the public and the BE OPEN art community members.

(more…)

BE OPEN Regional Art steps into the second region of 2026 to support emerging artists of Central Europe

Lilia Valieva

BE OPEN Art, an online gallery set up by Elena Baturina’s humanitarian think-tank BE OPEN, continues to run BE OPEN Regional Art for the fourth year in 2026. The regional competition for emerging artists aims to support those whose art best represents their regional, cultural and ethnic identities, for the third year now.

For the purpose, the BE OPEN expert community selects those artists who best represent the artistic tradition of a certain region to feature in the BE OPEN Art gallery and offer them greater visibility. Thus, artworks by 20 new emerging artists appear in the online gallery every month, and a public vote selects the Regional Artist of the Month. At the end of the stage, one of the monthly winners gets the title of the Artist of the Region and a grant based on the amount of votes by the public and the BE OPEN art community members.

(more…)

BE OPEN Regional Art competition congratulates the Western Africa winners

Lilia Valieva

The regional competition for emerging artists BE OPEN Regional Art, developed by Elena Baturina’s humanitarian think-tank BE OPEN, is proud to announce the winners for the Western Africa region. October to December became the months of celebration of young artists from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.

(more…)

BE OPEN celebrates the Designing Futures 2050 winners at the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi

Lilia Valieva

From December 8 to 12, BE OPEN attended the 7th session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-7) held by the UN Environment Programme in Nairobi, Kenya. The foundation took that opportunity to reward and celebrate the winners of the Designing Futures 2050 competition finalized earlier this year.

UNEA is the world’s highest decision-making body on the environment, and it is critical for addressing the shared environmental threats. The Assembly brings together ministers, intergovernmental organizations, multilateral environmental agreements, the broader UN system, civil society groups, scientists, activists and the private sector to shape global environmental policy.

(more…)

BE OPEN presents the winning projects of the Designing Future 2050 international student competition during COP30

Lilia Valieva

On November 14th, the fifth day of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30), BE OPEN had an opportunity to present its work and report on the outcome of its latest student competition at the HiHouse studio in the Green zone of COP30.

BE OPEN presented video pitches by all five winners and winning teams of Designing Future 2050, the recently finalised global student competition encouraging young creatives to reframe and update the SDG agenda based on today’s realities. The project aimed to inspire them to go beyond the 2030 agenda, and actively participate in developing and implementing realistic and sustainable action plans favourable for their own future.

(more…)

BE OPEN announces the winners of the Art Limitless competition, a celebration of inclusive arts and artists

Lilia Valieva

Art Limitless is a new programme within the BE OPEN Art online gallery tailored specifically to display the competitions, webinars, master-classes and other sources of knowledge and guidance on sustainability in arts.

In 2025, the Art Limitless project within BE OPEN Art has been dedicated to inclusivity in arts. For the Art Limitless Competition, from May to October 2025, BE OPEN expert community have been researching and selecting artwork by artists with disabilities that demonstrate the beneficial power of creativity and inclusivity.

(more…)