Gallery of Art Foundation Curaçao is located in Hanchi Snoa, Punda.
Contact: artfoundationcuracao@gmail.com
Website: www.pleinaircuracao.com
Art Foundation Curaçao is a non-profit organization founded based on the idea that people of Curaçao are creative and talented and that Curaçao has all the ingredients to become an art destination.
Their mission is to promote Curaçao as an Art Destination, attracting artists and art lovers, collectors and dealers to the island. To build a forum for local artists to exchange techniques and foster friendships with international artists, and encourage the public to develop their artistic talents in the widest sense.
The Plein Air Curaçao Festival is the biggest project of Art Foundation Curaçao: an international art festival which takes place every other year. During the festival international Plein air artists come to Curaçao to paint outdoors, together with local artists. With all kinds of media, these artists bring to life the beauty of Curaçao, its people and its culture to be permanently exposed locally and abroad through paintings in homes, galleries, and museums.
The youth of Curaçao play an important part in our activities. Free art classes are given at schools and alternative homes (“internaten”). We give workshops for teens and free workshops for youngsters at JJIC (former GOG), which is the youth correctional institution. When beautiful art is being created, there is less room for thinking of mischief.
Our organization is young but has already earned respect from similar foreign festivals and artists who attended in the past, as well as the local and international media. The team is professional and tireless, very result oriented and creative, with the capacity to make big things happen for art in Curaçao. We are looking for less expensive ways to communicate this to the general public and our local (and international) partners/clients, so that more persons, especially the youth, can benefit from the organized art projects and activities.
Plein Air Curaçao Art Museum
From the start of the international art festival in 2011, it was the intention to establish a museum to house a slowly growing permanent collection of the beautiful paintings of Curaçao made during the festival. A competition is held at the end of each festival and some first prize winning paintings are retained for display, that otherwise would be taken abroad by their owners and not be available for local viewing.
Every two years the Plein Air Curaçao artists paint Curaçao on land (Plein Air), underwater (Plein Eau) and from above (Plein Aerial) because the island, its people and cultural objects make for very paintable subjects, while the documentation in paintings also aims to preserve a sampling for future generations.
Although the collection of paintings is permanent, this brand new museum’s location is not permanent and will follow the pop-up concept of the festival itself.