Pro Helvetia has taken up the promotion of up-and-coming young artists. The Swiss Arts Council’s aim is to support young artists on their way to a national and international career in the first five years after they have completed their artistic training or studies. Pro Helvetia’s programme for aspiring artists covers all the arts disciplines it supports and is set up in collaboration with experienced partner institutions in Switzerland and abroad.

Numerous biographies show that the early years after the end of formal education are often decisive for the course of an artist’s career. This is where the promotional measures of Pro Helvetia set in. The Swiss Arts Council supports the most talented young Swiss artists aged up to 35 in the first five years after their graduation from an art academy or after the first public presentation of their work, for example at an exhibition or a reading. Pro Helvetia thereby wants to facilitate their entry into the professional art world and support them on their way to a national and international career. To fulfil this mandate, provided for by Switzerland’s new Art and Culture Promotion Act, Pro Helvetia offers a broad range of promotional measures developed in cooperation with experienced partner organisations. These include renowned festivals, music ensembles, galleries and art academies in Switzerland and abroad.
 
Wide array of measures
Helping up-and-coming young artists become established at international level as quickly as possible requires specially designed measures tailored to the artist’s specific potential and the situation on the associated market. Such measures include coaching and networking, know-how exchange and artist-in-residence programmes. In a project called «Klassenarbeit» (class work) , for example, young Swiss composers are given the opportunity to develop and perform new pieces together with the «ensemble recherche», which is based in Freiburg im Breisgau and specialises in contemporary music. At the Avignon theatre festival, the largest in the world, nine talented young Swiss theatre and dance practitioners are invited to take part in a seminar with prominent participants that deals intensively with issues of contemporary stage art. Finally, a key element in the promotion of aspiring artists is raising their profile and enhancing public awareness of their work. Pro Helvetia has therefore begun to support exhibitions of young visual artists’ work at international art fairs.

A detailed overview of all projects supporting up-and-coming young artists is available at www.prohelvetia.ch/Nachwuchs.

Media Relations: Sabina Schwarzenbach, Head of Communication,
Tel. +41 44 267 71 39, fax +41 44 267 71 06, sschwarzenbach@prohelvetia.ch