The Loewe Foundation also provides significant support for initiatives involving poetry and dance.
Poetry
A 1988 meeting between former Loewe Foundation president Enrique Loewe joined with the poet Luis Antonio de Villena and the editor Jesús Visor resulted in the creation of what has come to be known as the most prestigious juried award for poetry in Spain written in the Spanish language. Former jurors whom readers might recognize include Juan Benet, José Hierro, Octavio Paz, Carlos Bousoño and Pablo García Baena.
The Loewe Foundation notes “the evolution of the prize reflects the growth of a genre in constant transformation; from the wave of culturalist poetry of the 'Novisimos' (Newest Ones) around the 1980s and 1990s, up until the striking explosion of realist and existential poetry.” Today, the foundation prize continues to identify and respect new voices and genres contributing to “artistic expression.”
The prize carries with the acknowledgement a €30,000 award. There is also a young poet’s award, for authors under 33 years old, with a €12,000 award. Winning works are published at the Colección Visor de Poesía.
Recent award winners include Orlando Mondragón and Reiniel Pérez Ventura. Orlando Mondragón, born in Guerrero, Mexico, in 1993, is a surgeon from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Unidad Xochimilco. In 2021, Mondragón won the prize with his book titled Notebooks of Human Pathology. Reiniel Pérez
Ventura, born in Cuba in 1999, is a poet and student of foreign languages at Universidad
Central de las Villas de Cuba. Perez was born in Cuba in 1999. In 2022, Ventura won the Prize with his book Las Sílabas y El Cuerpo. into the sexual life of words.
Entries for the 2023 prize closes in June 2023, after which jury selection begins. Rules for entry can be found here: https://premiopoesia.loewe.com/docs/XXXVI_BASES_PREMIO_POESIA_digital.pdf
Dance
The Loewe Foundation supports the world of dance by “raising international awareness by fostering meaningful connections between dancers, audiences and practitioners from other artistic disciplines.” The foundation’s support of dance began in 2007 when it sponsored the dance season of Madrid’s Teatro Real, an event it continued to sponsor through 2018. Across time, as with the poetry prize, the range of sponsorships has expanded. For example:
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Poetry & Dance