European Academy of Arts

The European Academy of Arts, is a joint initiative between Audi, the Berlin University of the Arts and the media entrepreneur Christiane zu Salm.

Up-and-coming artists – ranging from the fine arts to design and music/composition – receive a scholarship. To launch the European Academy of Arts, seven countries from northern, eastern, southern and western Europe were included, as examples, in the process of selecting scholarship nominees: Finland, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain.

From among the 21 candidates selected in total, a high-calibre jury then shortlists the first three scholarship holders, who were presented to the public and who will shortly begin their artistic work in Berlin. The scholarship holders are the Scottish artist Martin Boyce, the Finnish designer Iiro A. Ahokas and the French composer Yan Maresz. The college’s patron is Dr. Christina Weiss, Germany’s State Minister of Cultural and Media Affairs. The jury is composed of the following members: the multitalented artist Rebecca Horn, the painter and sculptor Markus Lüpertz, the conductor Kent Nagano, the composer Aribert Reimann and Walter Maria de Silva, who heads Audi brand group design (Audi, Seat and Lamborghini).

The European Academy of Arts and its talented creative students – who will be active in Ingolstadt as well in the course of the nine-month scholarship – embody Audi’s desire to forge links between industrial activity, mobility, high technology and artistic contemplation. And in addition, Audi is helping the cultures of Europe to grow closer together by actively promoting the arts.