The Fondazione Donnaregina per le arti contemporanee was set up in 2004 with the goal of promoting art and culture in the Campania Region. Since 2013, its action has developed along two main guidelines: on the one hand, supporting the emerging artistic production through the Progetto XXI platform, and on the other hand, through the patronage program, called Matronato, which is followed, in 2014, by the establishment of the lifetime achievement award called Matronato alla Carriera.
PROGETTO XXI
With Progetto XXI, the Fondazione Donnaregina per le arti contemporanee seeks to explore emerging artistic production on both theoretical and practical level along with the most relevant artistic practices of the last few decades. This project contributes to the production and the circulation of different narratives about the contemporary world and to the definition of a regional system of contemporary arts based on collaboration and interchange between public and private institutions operating in the Campania Region.
MATRONATO
The Fondazione Donnaregina per le arti contemporanee has launched a program of patronage, called Matronato (“matronage”), with the purpose of recognizing, evaluating and disseminating a knowledge of projects deserving of consideration because of their value and cultural or artistic quality. Proposals may be forwarded by subjects resident or based in one of the following Italian regions: Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily, Sardinia, Abruzzo, Molise. If meritorious, they will be subjected, on proposal of the Director, to the incontestable assessment of a jury consisting of the members of the Scientific Committee and the Director of the Foundation. The granting of the patronage will enable the holder of the selected project to use the logo of the Matronato.
MATRONATO ALLA CARRIERA
The Fondazione Donnaregina per le arti contemporanee has also established the Matronato alla Carriera, a lifetime achievement award given to someone who, through his/her work or activities, has stand out for the production, the research, the promotion or the conservation of the arts, giving prestige and stimulus to the contemporary culture.
In 2014, the Matronato alla Carriera was awarded to Mimmo Jodice, for “an exemplary research that, for more than 50 years, enchanted our view on reality, starting from that of the city of Naples, and represented one of the vertices of photographic production and of the reflection on photography at international level”. In 2017, the award went to Jimmie Durham, to celebrate “the profound relationship between the artist and the city of Naples, as well as a research marked by a supreme humanism in its defense of every minority or difference and in its extraordinary ability to give dignity to what is on the edge, considered humble, poor and ephemeral”.
