BE OPEN celebrates tradition and creativity with the Cyprus Future Heritage Competition

LUGANO, Switzerland, Sept. 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- BE OPEN Foundation has launched Cyprus Future Heritage Competition, an international competition for young artisans, artists, and designers, organized in collaboration with the Cyprus Handicraft Service of the Deputy Ministry of Culture and the Society of British and International Interior Design (SBID).

The 2025 edition of the Cyprus Future Heritage Competition is dedicated to celebrating and reimagining Cyprus's weaving and embroidering traditions, aiming to preserve cultural heritage while inspiring contemporary creative practices.

The competition will accept entries from Cyprus-based designers, artisans, fine artists and makers in traditional techniques aged 18 to 30, up to October 31, 2025.

The shortlisted submissions will be selected in November, while the three winning entries will be selected by the international jury and announced at the end of December this year. The jury will be composed of both experts in Cyprus's traditional crafts and representatives of international creative industries. The jury members will assess all the submissions in accordance with a number of criteria, from the relevance to the island's heritage to overall creative potential.

The three winners will be awarded fully-covered foreign internships and workshops organised by BE OPEN and the Society of British and International Interior Design (SBID).

As an international humanitarian initiative BE OPEN is proud to contribute to celebration of Cypriot heritage. Founder Elena Baturina comments: "It is a joy and honour to explore the incredibly profound context of Cyprus's artisanal history through the eyes of younger artists and makers. We are excited to see how a creative mind can interpret, transform or introduce centuries of tradition into objects and decorations relevant for the contemporary scene, thus connecting the past and the future in their own unique formats. I look forward to seeing the entries that I am sure will inspire even deeper appreciation of Cyprus's culture and creative potential of its craftsmanship".

With this competition BE OPEN continues to involve Cyprus's youth into educational and artistic projects. Previously, the foundation held an art exhibition as part of BE OPEN Regional Art programme, co-hosted sessions and masterclasses for schoolchildren on craft-related entrepreneurship.

BE OPEN is a sociocultural foundation set up by international philanthropist Elena Baturina. It develops ways to harness the creativity of younger generations through artistic and educational projects.