“For 12 years now, BE OPEN has been working to support innovation and creative vision in various areas of human activity, in order to achieve a better world. It is obvious now that a scaled up approach is needed for the achievement of the SDGs in the foreseeable future. Therefore the foundation announces a number of additions to its existing strands of work”, said BE OPEN founder Elena Baturina during COP29 in Baku. Thus BE OPEN has announced a commitment in regard to its operations for the year 2025 and on, to make sure all of its programmes and projects prioritize sustainability.
In 2025, BE OPEN Art online gallery will continue providing support to emerging artists worldwide in order to help them gain visibility and find their place in the creative community. The art committee will maintain focus on artwork that emphasizes social consciousness and artistic solutions to the wrongs of the contemporary world.
BE OPEN will expand the regional competition to four new regions over 2025 to offer publicity to wider circles of emerging artists who represent their regional and ethnic artistic identities, and to increase the versatility of featured talent. By introducing such initiatives as ‘Artists for Artists’ that offer useful and applicable content by the more to less successful artists the foundation facilitates a healthy supportive community rooted in BE OPEN Art.
Same with the Community Support Fund, the non-profit initiative the gallery launched in 2024 with the hope to build a mechanism of mutual financial support. It rewards the monthly winners with cash grants derived from art sales of selected work over the course of a year. Additional resources will support emerging artists in their continued pursuit of a successful career in the arts. BE OPEN wants to empower artists to follow their creative paths while involving the audiences in buying art not purely for purposes of collecting and possession, but also playing a philanthropic part in other artists’ future.
BE OPEN will also tailor a section of the gallery for sustainable and inclusive art and artists, supported by the “Art Limitless” online competition, lectures, master-classes and other sources of knowledge and guidance on sustainability in arts.
BE OPEN Academy continues to offer an all-around picture of the creative education landscape to young people who aspire to build professional careers in creative disciplines, or wish to expand their knowledge and skill set with additional education. This comes enriched with space for expert opinion, mentoring, and special projects.
For 2025, BE OPEN will continue this work with particular focus for the Academy’s content that is the Futures Studies and Education for Sustainable Development. BE OPEN will interact with educational institutions to create a database of courses and recommendations that will cater for the needs of both teachers and students, to facilitate incorporating topics like climate change, poverty reduction, and biodiversity into various curricula, and using teaching methods that encourage students to take sustainable action.
As for the global student design competitions, BE OPEN will continue building the challenges around the involvement of younger people into solving actual and urgent issues of the world of today formulated by the United Nations’ SDG. With the ongoing Designing Futures 2050, BE OPEN continues to support and award younger creatives for developing the solutions aimed at contributing to how we transform systems and create better conditions for an equitable and environmentally prosperous world
