Oct 23 2013
CERN is launching Accelerate @ CERN, its new country specific one month research award for artists who have never had a longer stay at a science laboratory before. It is the sister strand of CERN1's successful flagship artists residency programme, Collide @ CERN2. Both are part of Arts @ CERN, which was initiated by CERN’s Cultural Policy, Great Arts for Great Science in 20113.
“Accelerate @ CERN is a clear demonstration of the willingness of society now for science and technology to work together with the arts as expressions of culture” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer.
Every year, two countries will fund two different artistic domains to participate in the Accelerate @ CERN research awards. The awards will be made after an open call in the country funding the award, and the winners will receive a stipend of 5000CHF for their one month research visit to CERN, as well as subsistence and travel costs. The awards will be judged by a jury comprising the funders of the programme and representatives from CERN.
In the first year the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia4 is funding an Accelerate @ CERN strand for Swiss artists engaging in interactive web art as part of their programme called “Mobile. In Touch with Digital Creation”. The choice of web art marks CERN’s unique place in the history of the development of the world wide web. The open call begins on 26 November 2013 and closes 21 March 2014.
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The second country to be engaging with the programme is Greece. The Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens, which is funded by the Onassis Foundation5, is funding an award for Greek visual artists to win a one month research visit to CERN and the open call begins on 30 October 2013 and closes at the end of January 2014.
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“It is very exciting that in Spring 2014 a Greek and Swiss artist will have the opportunity to have a one month research visit of the multi dimensional world of particle physics and see how their visits inspire new artistic research,” says CERN’s Cultural Specialist Ariane Koek.
Footnote(s)
1 CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's leading laboratory for particle physics. Its headquarters are in Geneva. Its Member States are currently: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Romania has the status of Candidate for Accession. Israel and Serbia are Associate Member States in the pre-stage to Membership. India, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and UNESCO have Observer status.
2 Collide @ CERN is the three-year Collide @ CERN artist-in-residence programme launched by CERN in 2011. Our current artists in residence in 2013 are the US sound sculptor Bill Fontana and the German film maker Jan Peters. http://press.web.cern.ch/press-releases/2011/09/cern-announces-collidecern-artists-residency-programme
3 http://press.web.cern.ch/press-releases/2011/08/cern-launches-cultural-policy
4 Pro Helvetia is the arts council of Switzerland and is a foundation entirely funded by the Swiss Federal Government. It is responsible for promoting artistic creating in Switzerland, contributing to cultural exchange at home and promote the dissemination of Swiss culture abroad. http://www.prohelvetia.ch/Home.20.0.html?&L=4 Pro Helvetia recently initiated the Mobile, In Touch with Digital Creation programme which explores the impact of digitalization on artistic work.
5 The Onassis Cultural Centre-Athens was inaugurated in December 2010, as a new cultural site accessible to all. Its mission is the promotion of modern cultural expression, the support of new Greek artists, the cultivation of international collaborations, the education and lifelong learning, as well as the co-existence and interaction of sciences, innovation and arts. The centre is funded by the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation, which was set up by the late Aristotle Onassis to commemorate his son. http://www.sgt.gr/en/programme/eventsformonth/20131001 - http://www.onassis.gr/en/