Vija Celmins Foundation Grant established to support Latvian artists
On Thursday, 3 April 2025, at a press conference at the Latvian National Museum of Art, the establishment of the Vija Celmins Foundation Grant to support Latvian visual artists was anounced.
Vija Celmins Foundation Grant
The Vija Celmins Foundation Inc., established in the United States to promote culture, in collaboration with the Latvian National Museum of Art (LNMA) and Latvian-born American artist Vija Celmins, will award an annual grant of 30,000 USD to one Latvian artist who works in the field of visual arts, starting from 2025. The Vija Celmins Foundation has pledged to fund the grant for ten years – from October 2025 until October 2034.
The aim of the grant is to support actively practicing Latvian artists or individual members of an artist group who have demonstrated high artistic merit in their creative careers. Vija Celmins has always taken an interest in the Latvian art scene and the fate of Latvian artists, how they, despite often limited opportunities, manage to practice art and maintain creative freedom. Vija Celmins wishes to promote art patronage in Latvia, believing that it is the duty of every wealthy individual to donate to a socially significant cause.
Folow your art and go where it takes you. To make art is to pursue what you cannot say,
Vija Celmins inspires the applicants.
“Vija Celmins has always attached importance to the artist and his work of art. Yet when speaking about someone’s successes and failures, Celmins is rather direct in her judgements, often expressing a fairly critical attitude. At the same time, she knows what the path in art means. Also, that sometimes a helping hand is necessary in order for something truly valuable to appear and develop. This desire to support the artist-creator and, as I see it, a deeply-felt belonging to Latvia has grown into the idea for the Vija Celmins Foundation Grant. We are very grateful to Vija Celmins for her trust in the Latvian National Museum of Art,” says Māra Lāce, LNMA Director.
“Ellex Kļaviņš law firm is truly honoured to stand beside the Latvian National Museum of Art and support outstanding initiatives that promote the growth of Latvian contemporary art. For over eight years, our co-operation with the LNMA has been based on a shared conviction of the importance of art in the development of society. We believe that companies also have a role to play in the shaping of the culture scene, and the Vija Celmins Foundation Grant today is an extraordinarily significant step towards sustainable patronage in Latvia. The values of our law firm have always involved support for Latvian art and the LNMA and we are delighted to continue this tradition,” emphasizes Raimonds Slaidiņš, Senior Partner at the law firm Ellex Kļaviņš, the representative of the Vija Celmins Foundation Grant supporter.
Detailed information on how to apply for the grant can be found in the Regulations.
The Application form (in Latvian), together with the artist’s CV, portfolio and a description (up to 1000 characters) of the proposed use of the grant should be sent to the e-mail .
The applications for the 2025 grant are open from 1 June to 31 July.
The recipient of the grant will be announced in October.
Further information will be available on the LNMA website in the ARSENĀLS section Vija Celmins Foundation Grant.
Jury
To carry out the evaluation of the candidates’ applications for the grant and the selection of nominees, a jury of five experts has been set up. The jury includes one representative of the Latvian National Museum of Art and four invited experts in the field of Latvian contemporary art processes. In years 2025–2026, the recipient of the grant will be chosen by: Dr. art. Elita Ansone, Head of the Collections and Scientific Research Department ARSENĀLS (2nd Half of the 20th Century – Nowdays) at the LNMA, Zane Čulkstēna, founder of Kim? Contemporary Art Centre and the employer consulting company ERDA, member of the Council of the Art Academy of Latvia, Kaspars Groševs, artist, co-founder and curator of the artist-run gallery 427, Maija Kurševa, artist, founder of the LOW gallery and the Riga Zine Fest, exhibition curator, lecturer at the Art Academy of Latvia, Inga Meldere, artist.
After reviewing the grant applications, the jury will select five nominees, from which the Vija Celmins Foundation will choose one recipient of the grant.
After two years, a new group of experts will be assembled under the approval of the LNMA Director.
About Vija Celmins
Vija Celmins is a Latvian-born American artist. Celmins was born in 1938 in Riga, in 1944 together with her family she left the country as a refugee, in 1948 she arrived in the USA and in 1949 settled in Indianapolis. In 1962, when Vija Celmins began her studies at the University of California (Master of Fine Arts, 1965), she moved to Los Angeles where she lived and worked until 1981. Subsequently she moved to New York, forcefully establishing her name in the Western art circuit, becoming one of the most notable contemporary artists. Her drawings, paintings and prints are known for their depiction of the ocean surface, the starry sky, spider webs, and desert rocks.
Vija Celmins’ works are kept in the great collections of contemporary art in the world: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Tate Gallery in London, and others. 11 works by the author are held in the collection of the Latvian National Museum of Art.
Grant logo
The Vija Celmins Foundation Grant logo with Saturn was designed by artist Sarmīte Māliņa, inspiring by a work in the LNMA collection – Vija Celmins’ lithograph Saturn Stamps (1995). In the late 1960s, the era of space conquest drew Celmins’ interest to the images shot in space. She has depicted Saturn in several works and Saturn Stamps were conceived as a conceptual commentary on the emergence of the subject of space in popular culture.
Grant supporters
The grant is supported by SIA ZAB Ellex Kļaviņš. The law firm’s co-operation with the Latvian National Museum of Art began in 2017, and since then art patronage has become an essential part of the firm’s cultural identity.