Katie Ceekay en Livia Ribichini winners new Groninger Visual Arts Stipends 2023

From forty very diverse applications, the jury has selected the winners. On Thursday, December 14, the stipends were awarded by Alderman Kirsten de Wrede. The stipends each consist of a sum of €20,000 and are linked to support trajectories that focus on the artist's talent development. Both have their own orientation; 'Land' focuses on researching and making an impact in the local region. 'Horizon' has an international orientation where the artist is encouraged to spread their wings and develop (part of) a project abroad.

Livia Ribichini

Livia Ribichini explores how we as humans and bodies relate to digital space within the medium of dance. She is working toward a virtual reality performance that explores the nuances of the digital body. Ribichini travels to Denmark and Korea for her research, doing artistic research in collaboration with organizations in the fields of art, dance, performance and technology. The jury appreciates her non-hierarchical way of working together and the diversity of collaborative partners Ribichini seeks out.

Katie Ceekay

Katie Ceekay's work is driven by a deep-rooted civic engagement and concern for our collective future. She researches the development and legitimization of artistic art practices that are at the intersection of political intervention and community building. Her work is innovative, highly actualistic and well thought out and developed. Her personal motivation and determination to make an impact in both society and as well as on a personal level in people's lives, is something the jury finds admirable.

Exhibition Jildau Nijboer 

The exhibition of Jildau Nijboer, winner of the latest George Verberg Stipendium 2023, will be on view at Academy Minerva in March 2024. Nijboer traveled to Germany, Poland and Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, among other places, for her research, investigating the phenomenon of windows within Eastern Bloc architecture and associated playgrounds. The winners of the previous Hendrik de Vries Stipendium 2023, Katayoon Valamanesh (visual arts) and Maartje Terpstra (literature) will present the installations they made with the stipend until January 11 at Kunstpunt Groningen.

LetterenStipendium

In addition to the two visual arts stipends, two literary stipends were awarded to Noor Wildeling and Robin van Ommen, in collaboration between NOORDWOORD and the Municipality of Groningen.

Artwork on top of the page: Marouschka Brian, 'Connected Metal', 2023, sculpture with metals and wires.