The 2020 Henrike Grohs Art Award ceremony scheduled to hold on May 30 in Dakar, Senegal, has been postponed indefinitely due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
A statement from Goethe-Institut explained that the decision is to protect all its stakeholders.
It read, “As a duty of care to our project team, contributors, supporters, artists and the visiting public we have taken the decision to not go ahead with hosting the 2020 Henrike Grohs Art Award ceremony in Dakar, Senegal, as was scheduled.
“The ceremony will now take place at a later date, with the prize awarded to the winners at a time still to be confirmed.
“We will communicate the way forward in the coming weeks and will engage directly with partners, stakeholders and artists. The public will be kept updated through our social media channels and our website, as we continue our work through digital channels. The Henrike Grohs Art Award remains committed to connecting and supporting artistic practice across the continent and will prioritise developing a new format in which to present the ceremony in 2020.”
The Henrike Grohs Art Award is a roving biennial art prize conceived by the Goethe-Institut and the Grohs family in memory of the former Head of Goethe Institut, Abidjan, Henrike Grohs. She was killed in a terrorist attack in Côte d’Ivoire in March 2013 alongside 17 other people.
The late Henrike Grohs studied Ethnology and was Head of the Goethe-Institut in Abidjan from 2013–2016. She co-founded the project Next – Intercultural Projects at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin. Between 2002 and 2009, she worked as Project Manager in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra’s Education programme. In 2009, she was appointed Advisor on Culture and Development at the Goethe-Institut in South Africa.
