Since the end of 2009, the “Culture for everyone” programme has grouped together all the cultural philanthropy actions carried out by Dexia. The programme targets both the public at large and the Group’s own employees and seeks to facilitate access to culture and in particular to the Group’s outstanding collection of Belgian art.
Opening up of art collections
Once a month, Dexia’s head office in Brussels opens its doors and allows its employees and the general public to explore the country’s largest private art collection. Comprising 4,500 works, it includes paintings, sculptures and tapestries produced by such major artists as Ensor, Delvaux and Van Den Berghe.
In the same way, each year, four exhibitions are mounted in Luxembourg and an open day in Italy, where Dexia also has important art collections. In 2010, thanks to Dexia, more than 6,000 people in Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy were able to discover an artistic heritage of rare quality ranging from the middle ages to the present day.
Dexia also lends its works to major international museums for temporary art exhibitions. In 2009, more than 25 items were exhibited at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Van Gogh Institute in Amsterdam.
Support for young talent
Under the “Culture for everyone” programme, the Group offers prizes each year to young artists from music academies and art colleges through the Dexia Classics and Dexia Art competitions. Support for the winners continues throughout their careers in the form of traineeships, concerts, recordings or exhibitions.
In 2010, in an endeavour to build bridges between disadvantaged urban areas and the world of art, the Dexia France Foundation issued a call for projects on the theme of “Culture in the Community”, supporting, in particular, sites set up for young job-seekers to renovate a chapel and a theatre in partnership with the Heritage Foundation.
Through its subsidiary DenizBank in Turkey, the Bank supports the Istanbul Symphonic Orchestra and sponsors the cello competition of the Mersin University State Conservatory.