• Bulgaria

We, at the Bulgarian Fund for Women, are conducting the second edition of the Fund for Art Projects by Women Artists and need your support in order to realise the planned initiatives!

The Fund for Art Projects by Women Artists aims to influence the tendencies associated with the problem of women’s representation in the world of art as well as their uneven access to financial resources.

We remind you that in 2018 BFW sent an inquiry to state galleries in the country, including the National Gallery, to check the ratio between women and men represented in their collections. It turned out that 91% of the works in the permanent exhibition and 78% of the solo exhibitions at the National Art Gallery were created by men. At the same time, only 16% of the artworks in the National Gallery’s Fund were created by women.

This data led to a study done by the curator Dobromira Terpesheva “Where are Women in the Whole Picture” where she examines the problem of the unequal representation of women in art on a global and national scale.

State of Emergency is the name of this year’s edition of the Fund which invited women artists from all spheres of contemporary visual arts to propose projects for new artworks that examine topics and problems relevant to today’s society. BFW encouraged the participants to think about what the hottest topics and most painful issues are for them today, what challenges their sense of justice as women as well as their sense of security, how the current situation affects their lives and their daily choices, what they want to change, etc.

We received project concepts from more than 200 authors and collectives from across Bulgaria and an expert jury chose 10 projects, each of which we supported with up to BGN 5 000.

After the artists finish their works, they will be presented in a common exhibition in the National Gallery (The Palace) in May-June 2023 curated by Svetlana Kuyumdjieva. We have also planned a number of accompanying events and initiatives such as presentations from international guest speakers, an academic discussion, a published catalogue with the artworks, etc.

To realise all of these, we will need your support. Donate to the Fund for Art Projects by Women Artists HERE.

To date, the initiative has been supported by the Chanel Foundation, Lachezar Tsotsorkov Foundation, Veronika Puncheva – philanthropist, Ubisoft and Legrand.