Chanel Culture Fund Will Hand 10 Artists 100,000 Euros in Prize Money

WINNER’S CIRCLE: The Chanel Culture Fund has revealed the 10 winners of the coveted Chanel Next Prize, which recognizes up-and-comers in international arts and culture.

For this second edition of the prize, each winner will receive 100,000 euros in funding, “allowing them to fully realize their most ambitious artistic projects,” according to the brand.

Winners will also have access to a two-year mentoring and networking program facilitated by cultural partners of the house, including the Royal College of Art in London. 

Chanel hands the award to “artists who are redefining their disciplines” and who embody Chanel’s mission “to advance the new and the next.”

The winners originate from six countries across four continents, including the U.K., U.S., Ireland, Brazil, Singapore and Georgia. They work across visual art, film, dance, video game design, performance, opera and digital art.

As reported, the prize was established in 2021 as part of the Chanel Culture Fund, the company’s global initiative to accelerate the ideas that advance culture, extending the house’s century-long legacy of patronage.

Yana Peel, global head of arts and culture at Chanel, said the prize was founded to amplify the work of artists “who are making a difference and redefining their disciplines.”

Of the winners, she said “each is a catalyst and a pioneer. Each is disrupting established practice across a multitude of cultural fields, from art and opera to cinema and game design. Watching their creative journeys will be thrilling.”

Jurors of the 2024 edition included Tilda Swinton, artist Cao Fei and curators Legacy Russell and Hans Ulrich Obrist.

The winners are Tolia Astakhishvili, an interdisciplinary artist primarily working with installation; Kantemir Balagov, an artist and filmmaker; Oona Doherty, a choreographer working at the forefront of contemporary dance; Sam Eng, an independent game developer working at the intersection of visual art and game design, and Ho Tzu Nyen, who works across animation, video, performance and installation.

They also include Fox Maxy a visual artist and director; Camae Ayewa, known as Moor Mother, a musician, poet and visual artist; Dalton Paula, an artist and educator who creates intimate portraits of forgotten Brazilian figures using paint and photography; Anna Thorvaldsdottir, a composer in contemporary classical music, and Davóne Tines, a singer, creator and curator working in theatre and opera as a bass-baritone.

The Chanel team has been busy of late. As reported, the Chanel Culture Fund is flying the French flag and supporting the multimedia artist Julien Creuzet, who is representing the country at the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale.

Chanel’s support of Creuzet marks the brand’s biggest moment at the Venice Biennale since Zaha Hadid designed the 2008 mobile art pavilion for the French company.