Mercosur Cultural announced the opening of the Mercosur Visual Arts Award during the meeting of ministers of Culture of Mercosur. The Mercosur Award is organized with the goal of encouraging and recognizing the work by visual artists from the region. The call was simultaneously announced in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Ecuador. It will offer artistic residencies to promote the exchange of knowledge and experiences and the promotion of actions by the artists selected. The call is directed to artists over the age of 18 that are citizens of the aforementioned countries or have resided in any of them for a minimum period of five years. The award offers to an artist from each of the participating countries a 3 to 4 week long artistic residency at the Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo (EAC) in the city of Montevideo, Uruguay. It includes an airplane ticket and a purse equivalent to US$2,000.00 (Two thousand US dollars) to cover costs involving the production of the work and the artist's living expenses. Each country will receive the nominations within its own territory—by no later than May of 2016—and will process them through a local jury. This jury will pre-select up to ten proposals and send them to a regional jury that will announce the list of winners during the month of April of 2016. To learn about the rules of the call and to get the application instructions for each country, visit:
http://www.mercosurcultural.org/index.php/2015-09-30-12-49-44/121-premio-mercosur-de-artes-visuales