FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

THE D'ACHTALL OBSERVATORY HONORS ELLA FONTANALS-CISNEROS FOR HER CULTURAL EXCHANGE BETWEEN SPAIN AND LATIN AMERICA. 

Photo: L-R: Ella Fontanals-Cisneros and Blanca Soto, Photo by Andres Garcia Lujan, Courtesy CIFO

Miami, Florida (February 15, 2018) - This Monday, the d´Achtall Observatory, an independent group of observation and reflection that watches culture and new trends in Spanish and Latin American life, honored Ella Fontanals-Cisneros with an award for the Cultural Exchange betwen Spain and Latin America at its latest edition of the d´ACHTAL Observatory Awards of 2018.

In February of this year, it was announced that the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports and the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO), which was founded by Fontanals-Cisneros, its Honorary President, will join to create an exhibition space that will be located in Tabacalera, in Madrid, Spain. Through this agreement, the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection will donate Latin American works of art to the Spanish State, reasserting the commitment of both parties to the promotion and research of Latin American culture and its artistic heritage, as well as the strategic positioning of the Iberian country as a cultural bridge between Europe and Latin America.

Other people receiving awards this year include: Araujo & Nadal (Architecture), Carmen Riera (Literature), Ignacio Vidal-Folch (Essay), Jose Luis Garci (Film), Isabel Muñoz (Photography), Martín Chirino (Plastic Arts), Frances Reynolds (Cultural Management) and Mario Vargas Llosa (Special Jury Prize).

The prizes in this edition were granted by a group of intellectuals, creators, and figures of the academic world of several continents, evaluating excellence in different cultural areas. The jury consisted of Jorge Eduardo Benavides (Peruvian writer), Esther Bendahan (writer and Cultural Director of Casa Sefarad), Carlos Franz (Chilean writer, member of the Royal Spanish Academy), Mercedes Monmany (literary critic and writer), Guillermo Corral van Damme (diplomat), Álvaro de la Rica (literary critic), Blanca Soto (gallerist and cultural manager), Jean Luc Blouët (French diplomat, member of the Senate), Joanna Karasek (Director of the Polish Institute of Culture), Almudena Solana (writer), and José Antonio de Ory (diplomat).

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About Ella Fontanals-Cisneros

The founder of the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Ella Fontanals-Cisneros is a philanthropist, entrepreneur, and businesswoman in the new technologies and other industries, as well as a collector of contemporary art. She started collecting art in the 70’s and her collection has an international profile with iconic figures of modern and contemporary art with a focus on Latin American art. Fontanals-Cisneros has sat and sits on the Board of Directors of a wide spectrum of art and educational institutions, including the Tate Americas Foundation, United Artist, Cintas Foundation, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, New Museum, the Fulbright Program, the Princeton University Program for Latin American Studies, among others.

About the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros (EFC) Collection

Ella Fontanals-Cisneros started collecting art in the early 70’s, with a main interest in Latin American works. As the collection grew and developed, its scope widened. What started as works acquired for personal enjoyment matured until it became a lifelong project. In a certain sense, there are several collections within the collection. There are four areas of interest that have been growing systematically in the last few years: Latin American abstract geometry, international contemporary art and Latin American art, contemporary video, and contemporary modern photography.

About the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO)

Ella Fontanals-Cisneros established the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) as a non-for-profit in 2002. The mission of the foundation is to support and promote cultural understanding, as well as an educational dialogue between Latin American artists and global audiences. The CIFO is a platform for emerging, mid-career, and established Latin American artists through the Grants and Commissions Program, the CIFO Collection, the CIFO Art Space and other related art and cultural projects in the United States of America and internationally.

For more information about CIFO exhibitions, and other programs, please visit cifo.org and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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