Launched in March, the Chanel Culture Fund is a series of initiatives that expand upon the fashion house’s history of cultural engagement and support contemporary artists after the pandemic.
The Chanel Culture Fund aims to “give visibility to global gamechangers at a time when the arts provide a vital source of inspiration and shifting perspectives on the way we view the world”.
Alongside a short film, Chanel has unveiled long-term partnerships with leading cultural institutions to create new programmes that will support creative innovation.
The five partners are the Underground Museum in LA, Paris’ Centre Pompidou, the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Power Station of Art in Shanghai and Moscow’s GES-2.
Chanel partners with GES-2 and Centre Pompidou
The Underground Museum has teamed up with the Chanel Culture Fund on the Noah Davis Prize, which awards three new fellowships to curators innovating in their field.
The Centre Pompidou’s programming initiative focuses on the exploration and creation of sustainable cities by designers, artists and scientists. GES-2 is offering an annual mentorship programme and residency for Russian women artists.
Shanghai’s Power Station of Art (PSA) will showcase new ideas and emerging movements in craft and architecture in China via the ‘New Culture Producers Programme’.
“Traditional museums no longer satisfy the younger generation’s imagination or expectation for the future,” said Gong Yan, director of the PSA (via Vogue).
National Portrait Gallery for Chanel Culture Fund
“The partnership with Chanel gives us the opportunity to reach out to young Chinese artists and audiences, and to act as a catalyst that sparks inspiration.
“It allows us to plant a seed for tomorrow.”
The National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition, ‘Reframing Narratives: Women in Portraiture’, will explore and enhance the representation of women in the museum’s collection and will be on display when it reopens in 2023.
Dr Flavia Frigeri, curator of the exhibition, said: “This partnership enables us to reconsider the place of women in the NPG’s collection.
“Women have always contributed to society, but very often they’ve been kept on the margins.”
Images: Chanel