Art scholarships awarded at the cultural New Year reception

Two young Offenbach artists are the recipients of the brand new "Soul OF Art" scholarship. In 2025, the city of Offenbach announced the two scholarships for the first time in order to promote and recognize the local urban art scene. At this year's cultural New Year's reception, Lord Mayor and Head of Cultural Affairs Dr. Felix Schwenke presented awards to the winners of the two scholarships. The genres will change annually; painting was chosen for the premiere edition. Two young women came out on top out of almost 50 applicants. Eyi Kim received the 4,000 euro scholarship for her project "Residual Walls" and Severine Henriette Meier the 8,000 euro main scholarship for "I don't care".

Dr. Felix Schwenke congratulates the two scholarship holders: "The 'Soul OF Art' scholarships are intended to send a clear signal to the Offenbach art scene. We can't do something for everyone - but we want to do something that could, in principle, benefit everyone. That's why 'Soul OF Art' has been set up with really substantial funding." The first two scholarship holders are "two exceptionally talented artists who deal with our world in a contemporary and committed way on the one hand and perspectives of meaningful art on the other. The Head of Cultural Affairs emphasizes how relevant he sees the creative scene for the city of Offenbach: "Offenbach thrives on people who work here creatively and bring new perspectives, and is the right place for many artists - to study, to start an artistic career and, time and again, to stay." The large number of applications shows how lively and attractive Offenbach's art scene is: "The city not only wants to promote this scene, but also visibly recognize it. The scholarship makes an important contribution to this."

Severine Henriette Meier was born in the Loire and studied in Ghent and Offenbach. She graduated from the Offenbach University of Art and Design in 2022 with a degree in fine art. Meier has shown her works in two solo exhibitions in Frankfurt and Offenbach and in group exhibitions in Berlin, Cologne, Kiel and Hamburg, among others. In 2025, she received the Frankfurt Artists' Aid Prize; she was also nominated for the Eb-Dietzsch Art Prize for Painting, the Lake Constance District Sponsorship Prize and the Federal Prize for Art Students. The jury justified Severine Henriette Meier's award with the high contemporary relevance of her painting. Her works take up familiar pictorial formulas without reproducing them and transform them into an independent, contemporary visual language. In addition to the human mouth, individual objects and gestures appear as striking pictorial symbols. For example, a pair of scissors hidden behind the back in a clenched fist or sharply manicured fingernails squeezing breast milk from the breast refer to care work with female connotations. The title "I don't care" does not stand for indifference, but for the conscious refusal of normative attributions of care, body and work. The jury sees strong potential for strengthening young, up-and-coming painters in the further development of this position.

Eyi Kim comes from South Korea, studied painting in Berlin and Offenbach and graduated from the Offenbach University of Art and Design in 2024. Her work has already been exhibited in Hamburg, Paris, Frankfurt, Berlin and Karlsruhe. Kim's project "Residual Walls" deals artistically with exposed exterior facades in the cityscape. Her paintings cover a diverse spectrum. On the one hand, she is based on figurative observations of everyday life, but at the same time works with approaches that are experimental and certainly also reach into the abstract. What the jury particularly appreciated about this combination was that, despite all these aspects, the approach is always that of painting. "Ms. Kim impresses with her special sensitivity for light and color moods as well as the changing haptics of surfaces, for example in the reproduction of metallic properties or human skin."

Professional artists in the field of painting were able to apply for the scholarships until November 30. The applications received were assessed by an expert jury: Dr. Dorothee Ader (Klingspor Museum), Katja M. Schneider (Haus der Stadtgeschichte), Dr. Ellen Wagner (HfG) as well as from the art associations Nandu Kriesche (BOK), Aileen Treusch (Mañana Bold), Ingrid Walter (Kunst Ort Rumpenheim) and Prof. Bruno Paulot (Kunstverein). The main scholarship is intended for artists who are already established on the market. The newcomer scholarship is aimed at artists who are under 30 or have been professionally active for less than five years.

The second funding round will be announced in the second half of 2026.