Nominations Open for Jacqueline Nonkels Prize

Deadline: 27-Oct-21

Nominations are now open for the Jacqueline Nonkels Prize for organizations.

Jacqueline Nonkels was friends with members of the surrealist movement in Belgium and, in particular, a close friend of Marcel Mariën and René Magritte. In her will, she created the Jacqueline Delcourt-Nonkels Fund with the objective of preserving and making available to everyone, René Magritte’s drawings, Marcel Mariën’s collages and the correspondence, photos, books and other objects relating to the surrealist movement in Belgium in her possession. Her bequest was not motivated by any material consideration. Respecting her wishes, these objects and documents have been entrusted to the most appropriate Belgian institutions, which will care for and exhibit them.

In her memory the Jacqueline Nonkels Prize has also been created. The Prize will be awarded annually to any person or body who successfully contributes, even in part, to raising awareness and publicizing Belgium’s surrealist heritage, as well as to its preservation, restoration and conservation.

The prize may be awarded for:

scientifically highlighting, in Belgium or abroad, Belgium’s surrealist heritage through research, publication, work or any other form of dissemination;
any initiative by a Belgian institution designed to increase awareness and physical accessibility of the Belgian surrealism heritage (e.g. through acquisition, restoration, presentation, new displays or pedagogic projects).

Prize Details

The Jacqueline Nonkels Fund will award an annual prize of € 5.000.
The price can be increased with additional support depending on the project and its needs. The total amount of support will not exceed 10.000 €.

Selection Criteria

In selecting the prize-winner, the jury will be particularly sensitive to the following points:

In the case of a research project or publication:

the innovative nature of the subject ;
the need for support in order to further the project ;
the added-value of the project for the community (e.g. circulation, target group, …) ;
the thought given to the project’s implementation (measured e.g. the accuracy and reliability of the financial plan, how realistic the timing is, evaluation and monitoring of the project, …) ;
guarantees for the project’s continuity (project promotion, …) ;
the long-term effect of the project (e.g. its exemplary value, …) ;
its topicality (e.g. exhibition, works and documents that have reappeared).
In the case of awareness building:
- the conditions of conservation and security of the site ;
- the symbolic nature of the site for surrealism ;
- the need for support to further the project ;
- the added-value of the project for the community (measured e.g. by the number of visitors, the number of beneficiaries from the project, …) ;
- the quality of the project implementation (measured e.g. by the dynamism of the project initiator, the accuracy and reliability of the financial plan, how realistic the timing is, the evaluation and monitoring of the project, …) ;
- guarantees for the project’s continuity (project promotion, …) ;
- the long-term effect of the project (bringing about, for example, a positive change in the structure of the association’s organization, leading to other projects either within or outside the association, the project being taken up by others, the exemplary nature of the project, …) ;
- the importance of the work in the totality of the artist’s work, in the history of art or in the institution’s collection ;
- the urgency of the project ;
- its topicality (anniversary, exhibition, …).