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Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art is located at: 2, 29th line of Vasilievsky Ostrov, St. Petersburg
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Erarta Museum is open every day except Tuesdays from 11:00 to 23:00
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Prize rules & regulations

 

Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art announces the start of the 2024 Erarta Prize with a total prize value of 3.5 million rubles. This is the first art prize ever that is awarded through a public vote rather than by a closed board of experts. This makes Erarta Prize essentially different from other art prizes, reflecting the key principles of Erarta Museum:

  • any work of art is a product of joint effort of its creator and the viewer, thus making the viewer a vital part of the creative process;

  • art speaks to everyone, and not just the professional community;

  • sharing becomes the spirit of the present time, and contemporary art should keep up with it;

  • it is more important to love art than to be able to judge it according to generally accepted criteria.

Helping people to grow to love contemporary art is a crucial part of Erarta Museum’s mission; in keeping with it, Erarta will encourage the viewers to select their favourite artwork according to their own choices and preferences. Erarta Museum will curate the contestants’ exhibition (select the exhibits and stage the actual show), but will not take part in determining the winners or invite other experts from the professional community to do so.

The exhibition will be held from 9 February through 9 June 2024 at Erarta’s Grand Hall and will showcase 40 creations by our contemporaries selected by the museum out of the entire pool of works submitted by the contesting artists. The voting will take place in three rounds:

  • At the close of the first voting round on 17 March, 15 artists with the least number of votes will be determined. They will be ranked from 40th to 26th and will receive a guaranteed reward of 50,000 rubles each.

  • The second round will last from 18 March through 25 April. 15 artists with the least votes will drop out of the competition for the Grand Prix, ranking from 25th to 11th and receiving 75,000 rubles each. Of the remaining 25 artworks, 10 will be shortlisted for the third voting round, with their creators being granted the ‘prize winner’ status.

  • The third voting round will last from 26 April through 5 June. The 10 shortlisted artworks will compete for the following money prizes: the artists ultimately ranking from 10th to 6th are guaranteed to win 100,000 rubles each; the top five artists will receive 125,000 rubles for the 5th place, 150,000 rubles for the 4th, 175,000 rubles for the 3rd, 200,000 rubles for the 2nd, and the Grand Prix of 500,000 rubles for the 1st place respectively.

Erarta Museum will have no power over the vote whatsoever. Every viewer will have one vote for each of the three rounds. The number of votes will not be cumulative from round to round: for each artist who makes it to the next voting round, it will be reset to zero so that all artists compete on equal terms. Anyone wishing to do so will be able to assure themselves of the fair and unbiased nature of the vote after all voting procedures are complete.

Entries for the Prize can be submitted by the creators (artists and artist collectives) of any contemporary artworks existing in tangible form (thus excluding action and performance art) regardless of the artists’ place of residence and actual background in contemporary art and irrespective of the year of the artwork’s creation and its genre or medium, be it painting, drawing, print, sculpture, photography, video, multimedia or installation art, as well as any other contemporary art form. Entries submitted by a party who did not create the corresponding artwork shall not be accepted, even if the said party is the legal successor to or official representative of the relevant artist. One artist can submit up to three artworks, although only one piece by every artist shall be selected for the exhibition. The artwork does not necessarily need to be in the private ownership of the artist taking part in the exhibition: artworks temporarily lent by their current owners may also be exhibited. The Museum does not ask anything in return for the Prize paid out to the winner; however, in order to take part in the project artists must prove their authorship and actual existence of the artwork (any artworks nonexistent as at the entry submission date shall not be accepted), as well as give Erarta Museum the right of public display of the artworks and their promotional use in connection with the exhibition.

Artists are welcome to address any inquiries to Erarta Museum’s Curatorial Team by emailing them at erartaprize@erarta.com.

 

New features introduced for the 2024 Erarta Prize edition

The museum’s team highly appreciates the feedback received from the artists and viewers in 2023 – it was everyone’s recognition and active involvement that made the project truly memorable. Having reviewed all the recommendations, we have decided to introduce several changes to the 2024 Erarta Prize awarding procedure with regard to voting, campaigning, and other procedural aspects that will surely make the project even more successful:

  • At the suggestion of our most active viewers who took part in the project in 2023, the total 2024 prize value will be fully allocated towards supporting the artists and distributed among the nominees according to the viewers’ judgement. Consequently, the total prize money for the artists will be increased to 3.5 million rubles (as opposed to 2.5 million rubles in 2023).

  • As before, the 2024 Erarta Prize will still be judged solely by the viewers; however, in order to make sure that the artists from various geographical areas compete on equal terms, any offline campaigning for the 2024 Erarta Prize nominees will be prohibited. That said, the vote will be open to all supporters of the participating artists, including those who will not be able to attend the Erarta Museum show. All holders of valid Erarta Museum Tickets and Memberships who will not be able to travel to St. Petersburg during the period of the 2024 Erarta Prize exhibition will have the option to vote in absentia. The 2024 Erarta Prize will feature three voting rounds: for each of them, every active Member/Ticket holder will have one vote that can be cast in favour of the artwork of their choice.

  • The prize money distribution procedure will also be modified. Every artist nominated for the 2024 Erarta Prize will receive a guaranteed reward – from the 50,000-ruble recognition prize up to the 500,000-ruble Grand Prix.

  • We will continue to arrange meet-the-artist events. Every nominee will be invited to present a private artist talk within the first six weeks of the exhibition period.

  • As previously, Erarta Museum will bear all costs related to artwork shipment and transportation.