(C) LCSB
Art2Cure artists donate 56,000 EUR to researchers at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine.
The funds will be used to support the LCSB’s research in the field of neurodegenerative disorders at the University of Luxembourg.
The artists presented the check to the event-organizers Philippe Lamesch and Gilles Weidig, in the presence of the bank’s CEO Hugues Delcourt and the LCSB’s COO Erica Monfardini.
“We raised twice as much money this year as we did last year”
“We raised twice as much money this year as we did last year, which is much more than we expected”, says Philippe Lamesch, who is also the LCSB’s fundraiser.
“We consider this exhibit a big success, not just because of the money raised, but also because we were able to stage a high-quality show with some of the best artists that Luxembourg currently has to offer”, adds Gilles Weidig.
This second edition of Art2Cure featured 28 artists, most of them Luxembourgish or residing in Luxembourg, who each showed several of their paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints and drawings.
From SUMO to Fernand Bertemes and younger talents
The show included some very well-known names from the Luxembourg art scene such as iconic artist SUMO, known for his unmistakable sunglass-sporting smiley faces, as well as Fernand Bertemes who again demonstrated his talent for both landscape and portrait painting.
The exhibit also introduced some younger, less-known talents including Sandra Lieners who impressed with her larger than life water-themed oil paintings, urban artist ‘Stick’, who took over an entire wall of the large gallery space with a huge graffiti, and tattoo-artist Sandra Biewers who stunned with her exquisite dream-like drawings and whimsical sculptures.
“I really enjoyed participating in this exhibition, not just because it presented a great platform to show my work, but also because I know that I can make a real contribution to research in Luxembourg”, explains artist Sandra Lieners.
Donations help to fill important gaps in the research landscape
Funds such as those raised through the art sales are extremely valuable to LCSB researchers in Luxembourg. Although the LCSB is a well-equipped institute, the Art2Cure fund as well as other private donations, can fill important financial gaps.
Private funding can for example be used to support projects that are too ambitious or ‘out-of-the-box’ for traditional funding agencies, to finance expensive instruments that are extremely important to carry out in-depth analyses on a highly competitive level, or to support researchers, especially Post-Doctoral scientists, who are suffering from a chronic lack of funding in Luxembourg.
Art2Cure Fund 2016 goes to collaboration between computer scientist and experimental scientist
This year, the Art2Cure prize went to an interdisciplinary research project led by the computer scientist Dr. Enrico Glaab and by experimental researcher Prof. Dr. Jens Schwamborn.
In their collaboration, they focus on Lewy Bodies which are protein aggregates that accumulate in the brain of Parkinson’s patients and that seem to contribute to the progression of the disease.
The scientists’ goal is to find new ways to increase the activity of an enzyme called KLK6, which is able to degrade the proteins that form Lewy Bodies, consequently clearing the brain of these harmful aggregates.
“We are extremely thankful to have BIL as a partner for Art2Cure. Not only do they offer us an amazing gallery space to show our artworks, but they are also extremely supportive in sponsoring the preview and opening events as well as the design of the exhibit catalogue. Gilles and I are extremely excited to organize the third edition of Art2Cure with BIL again in 2017”, says Philippe Lamesch.
Author: LCSB
Photo: LCSB
