Chanel Culture Fund

CHANEL EXTENDS GLOBAL CULTURAL COMMITMENT WITH FIVE PARTNERSHIPS, 
SUPPORTING INNOVATORS IN THE ADVANCEMENT OF NEW IDEAS, 
BROADER REPRESENTATION AND COLLABORATION ACROSS THE ARTS.

Chanel is releasing a new short film on the CHANEL Culture Fund, showcasing its five partners including The National Portrait Gallery – London, The Underground Museum – Los Angeles, Centre Pompidou – Paris, GES-2 – Moscow and the Power Station of Art – Shanghai (announced same day).

Spotlighting interviews with each partner, the film highlights the Fund’s newly-launched global programme of unique, tailored initiatives to foster innovation and creative exchange across the visual and performing arts.

What unifies the partnerships is Chanel’s global philanthropic commitment to supporting cultural innovators in advancing new ideas, broader representation and collaboration across different art forms.

In the spirit of Gabrielle Chanel’s ground-breaking role as a patron and convener of the avant-garde of her day, the Fund reaffirms Chanel’s dedication to the freedom of creation and human potential.

Expanding upon the House’s rich history of cultural patronage, the Chanel Culture Fund is reinvigorating this support by creating the conditions for contemporary creators to dare, at a time when the arts provide a vital source of inspiration and new perspectives on the way we view the world.

The CHANEL Culture Fund partnerships include:

●      The National Portrait Gallery “Reframing Narratives: Women in Portraiture,” (London): The appointment of a team, led by ‘Chanel Curator for the Collection’, Flavia Frigeri, to research and enhance the representation of women in the Collection and on display in the Gallery when the NPG re-opens in 2023, following a major transformation project.

●      The Underground Museum (Los Angeles): The Noah Davis Prize, three new fellowships awarded to curators innovating in their field and broadening cultural audiences.

●      The Centre Pompidou (Paris): A multi-year programming initiative focused on collaborative explorations by designers, artists and scientists to create new ecologies for sustainable cities and communities.

●      GES-2 (Moscow): A three-year annual mentorship programme and residency for game-changing Russian women artists working at the intersection of theatre, music, dance and film, to coincide with the opening in 2021 of the former power station-turned new urban space for contemporary culture in central Moscow, designed by Renzo Piano and RPBW (Renzo Piano Building Workshop).

●      Power Station of Art (Shanghai): The New Culture Producers Programme, to showcase new ideas and emerging movements in craft and architecture in Mainland China. For the next two years, the programme will launch an open call for makers in any creative discipline to propose a group exhibition, spotlighting the most compelling new creative forces, that results in an accessible and illuminating experience for the public.

Yana Peel, Global Head of Arts & Culture at Chanel; “From the outset we sought to develop the CHANEL Culture Fund with a truly global scope, reflecting  our commitment to the diversity of art forms and artists worldwide. The Culture Fund represents our House belief in the central importance of supporting individual creativity and nurturing human potential to drive innovation. 

Ever more so over the past year, we have seen how the arts can provide much-needed sources of inspiration and refreshing perspectives on how we view the world. We look to artists and cultural leaders to envision the future, through knowledge exchange and long-term partnership.

As a House we have always championed the vitality of the arts, and we continue  that tradition with the initiation of this Fund, with a focus on cultural innovators around the world who are mapping out what’s next and new. »