Launching a new annual award to celebrate emerging artists of the region, Dubai Culture has partnered with luxury group Bulgari.

Coinciding with Expo 2020 Dubai, this will be the first Bulgari Contemporary Art Award for which Dubai Culture is the official culture sponsor. The award will be presented with the support of the Italy Pavilion at the upcoming Expo.

The award will be given in three categories of visual arts —drawing and painting, photography and sculpture. The candidates will be chosen from Dubai Culture’s database of artists wherein applicants from UAE residents and nationals can apply. The works that will be presented must be created explicitly for the award and must use colour to express ‘how beauty connects people’, as the organisers describe it.

Applications for the prize will be accepted until mid-December 2021, with winners announced in February 2022. Three to five nominees for each category will be chosen by the judges, who are yet to be finalised, along with other jurors selected by both organisers.

The selected artists will be able to access the online lectures and workshops with Bulgari to study the brand’s craftsmanship of gemstones.

Talking about the award, a press conference at Etihad Museum was held where Hala Badri, director-general of Dubai Culture, said the award forms part of the emirate’s strategic pillars, which include supporting the creative industry.

“Each sector is dependent on another, whether it is the local or international level. By supporting this sector, we are allowing productivity in other sectors,” she said. She also highlighted the importance of developing the creative economy as part of overall growth.

Additionally, works of the winners will be displayed at the Italy Pavilion throughout the Expo 2020 Dubai event. Not just that, they will also be taken on a week-long trip to Rome to visit Bulgari’s jewellery ateliers, as well as other design centres and museums.