Afbeelding
27 juni 2023
The nominees for the Piket Art Prizes 2023 have been announced
The nine nominees for the tenth edition of the Piket Art Prizes, awarded to young, promising artists in the fields of painting, dance, and theater, were announced on Tuesday. A professional jury led by Amare director Jan Zoet selected Katarina Head, Menno Pasveer, and Kamila Sipika (Painting category), Justin Brown, breakdance crew Heavy Hitters, and Sophie Whittome (Dance category), Finn Borath & Boris de Klerk, Ensemble Nieuwe Theaterwerkers (ENT) and David Westera (Dramatic Arts category). The awards ceremony will take place on November 20 this year at Theater aan het Spui in The Hague. A new feature in this anniversary year is that all nominees will receive a cash prize.
“The nominations for the Piket Art Prizes in 2023 provide a versatile and colorful signal of how talented, diverse, experimental, and innovative the broad artistic and creative potential in The Hague is,” says Marie Jeanne de Rooij, director of the Piket Art Prizes. Nominee Menno Pasveer (Painting) is honored. “This nomination is a tremendous boost and opens up space for new possibilities.”
The jury
A professional jury evaluates which talent stands out among the many young artists with a connection to The Hague. This year, the jury consists of chair Jan Zoet, director of the cultural palace Amare in The Hague, Lea van der Vinde (Huygens' Hofwijck and Huygens' Swaensteyn), visual artist Joncquil de Vries, Amos Ben-Tal (dancer and choreographer OFFprojects), Erik Kaiel (dance collective Arch8), John de Weerd (Zaal 3 and the Parade), and Ellen Goemans (actress, teacher, and mentor at HKU Acting School). Van der Vinde and De Vries on the nominees in Painting: “They are all ‘real painters’ with a lot of potential who have managed to find their individuality in an era when it is often all about ‘likes.’”
Kaiel and Ben-Tal (Dance jury): “The path to theater that the Heavy Hitters are pursuing is special. They make themselves vulnerable. Justin Brown is very strong and charismatic. The different styles he uses flow seamlessly into one another. Sophie Whittome from NDT 2 is completely natural on stage, even in the most extreme work.”
Finn Borath and Boris de Klerk are considered by the jury to be ‘innovative, bold, clever, and good’ in Theater. David Westera is praised for his ‘universal style.’ The jury describes ENT as: “They make a great effort to support people who have just graduated. They try to remove the competitive element and focus on sharing instead.”
Award Ceremony
For each discipline (Painting, Dance, and Theater), the jury selects three winners. They will receive a cash prize of 8,000 euros and an award created by a distinguished artist. From this year on, the other nominees will no longer leave empty-handed. They will each receive 2,000 euros and an award.
About the Piket Art Prizes
The Piket Art Prizes have been awarded since 2014 to young artists with a connection to The Hague, either because they have developed their talents there or because their work contributes to the city's cultural climate. The prize’s namesake, Frederik Hendrik Piket (1927-2011), a lawyer and member of the Dutch Senate for the CHU (later CDA), was a great lover of art and culture. After his death, a foundation was established to annually encourage three promising, professional artists under the age of 30 with an award.
The breakdance crew Heavy Hitters is one of the nominees in the Dance category. Photo: Juan Carlos Leal Roja/Haags Hiphop Centrum
