At 10 a.m. on December 12, 2024, a vote was underway in the Düsseldorf City Council Hall, the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany: the art foundation Jiny lan Kunststiftung der Stadt Düsseldorf, named after the Chinese artist Jiny Lan, was unanimously approved.
For the Düsseldorf City Government, this is a “first-of-its-kind” event. The establishment of this art foundation fills two gaps: First, before this, Düsseldorf, as an art city with the most famous art academy in Germany, has never had an art foundation named after a living artist. Second, it is the first time in German history that an artist foundation with a Chinese identity has been established.
The establishment of the foundation took three years of preparation and application, and it went through layers of approval from relevant departments such as the state finance department, the cultural department, and the municipal government, and finally landed in Düsseldorf. This is an art foundation affiliated with the Düsseldorf City Government. The foundation’s initiators include famous German politicians, film and television stars, museum directors, art dealers, collectors, entrepreneurs, diplomats, etc. The purpose of the foundation is to help and support young artists who are on the rise, hold exhibitions, organize cultural exchange activities, and establish the highest-value art award in Germany every five years in the future.
Excerpted from a report by Liu Ying, a reporter from the German “Huashang Daily”
