Home News Call for Nominations for the Helena Vaz da Silva European Award 2023 (deadline: 19 May 2023)

Call for Nominations for the Helena Vaz da Silva European Award 2023 (deadline: 19 May 2023)

March 30, 2023 | Posted in Partnerships

Europa Nostra and its country representation in Portugal, Centro Nacional de Cultura, together with the Clube Português de Imprensa are pleased to launch the Call for Nominations for the 2023 edition of the Helena Vaz da Silva European Award for Raising Public Awareness of Cultural Heritage. This new edition of our joint Award Scheme will have a special significance since it will coincide with the celebration of the 60th Anniversary of Europa Nostra and also with the first year of the implementation of the European Heritage Hub pilot project, which is led by Europa Nostra and which will benefit from an active participation of Centro Nacional de Cultura, together with two other eminent associate partners from Portugal, namely the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the City of Lisbon.

As in the previous years, the Helena Vaz da Silva European Award will be attributed to a European personality whose career has been distinguished by activities that disseminate, defend and promote Europe’s cultural heritage, in particular through literary works, music, news reports, articles, chronicles, photographs, documentary features, films and radio and/or television programmes published in or broadcast by the media.

Nominations for the 2023 edition of the Helena Vaz da Silva Award can be submitted by the main partners of the Award: Europa Nostra (1 nomination per each member of the Council or Board), Centro Nacional de Cultura (1 nomination) and Clube Português de Imprensa (1 nomination). Candidates for the Award should have the nationality of one of the European states listed below.

If you know of a European personality who you think deserves to be recognised with this Award, please get in contact with our Secretariat and/or one of our Council Members by 5 May 2022. The deadline for the nominations for the 2023 edition of the Award is 19 May 2023.

In the previous ten years, our Award was given to an impressive group of winners. Last year, Oksana Lyniv, renowned conductor from Ukraine, was the winner; in 2021, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, leading European personality in contemporary dance; in 2020, José Tolentino Mendonça one of the most original voices of Portuguese contemporary literature and Head of the Vatican Library who has in the meantime been appointed as the Perfect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, a newly established administrative unit of the Romac Curia; in 2019, the prestigious Italian particle physicist and CERN Director-General Fabiola Gianotti; in 2018, British historian and broadcaster Bettany Hughes; in 2017, one of the most important figures in contemporary film, Wim Wenders from Germany; in 2016, ex aequo, the French caricaturist Plantu and the late Portuguese philosopher Eduardo Lourenço; in 2015, Maestro Jordi Savall from Spain; in 2014, the Nobel Prize Orhan Pamuk from Turkey; in 2013, the renowned Italian writer Claudio Magris. All the acceptance speeches made by winners are made available here.

List of European States eligible for the Helena Vaz da Silva Award

Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo*, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.