An evening for art and family for Queen Sofia of Spain

Queen Sofía of Spain attended an award ceremony for the BMW Painting Prize and the following concert at the Royal Theatre in Madrid. 

Her Majesty arrived at the theatre in the evening of Tuesday, 22 November and was welcomed by authorities, among which were the Director of Communications and Institutional Relations of BMW Group, the President of the Jury for the Awards, the Vice President of the “Mundo en Armonía” Foundation and the General Director of the Royal Theatre. 

Before entering the Ball Room of the Theatre, the Queen met with jury members and other influential figures in the Spanish cultural world. 

Once inside, Queen Sofía took her time to look at the paintings that reached the finals of the award scheme; at the end of her tour, she was given her own medal, commemorating her participation in this edition of the scheme. 

It was then time for the awards portion of the evening; once seated at the presidential table, the King’s mother declared the session open and then handed out the awards. 

For this year, the recipients were Ms Irene Molina, for the BMW Digital Prize; Ms Amaya Suberviola, who won the Mario Antolín Scholarship for funding research in the pictorial arts; Ms Andrea Hernández, BMW Award for the youngest talent; and finally, Mr Norberto Álvarez, who received the BMW Painting Award. 

The ceremony was followed by a charity concert organised to raise funds for Mundo en Armonía, a foundation presided over by Queen Sofía’s sister, Princess Irene of Greece. 

The foundation aims to promote a harmonic world through funding “humanitarian and development projects for individuals or organisations that need help, regardless of race, religion, nationality or ideology,” according to the Spanish Royal House. 

The BMW Painting Awards Scheme has reached this year its 37th edition, and since its inception, it aims to promote young painting talents and to shine a spotlight on art and painting culture. 

And the scheme keeps growing: according to the foundation’s official statistics, this year, they saw a 17% increase in entries. Furthermore, 41.8% of them were submissions by female artists, and the digital category keeps gaining attention, with a total of 700 pieces presented in just this category.