Delfina Foundation Receives Changemaker Award

Delfina Foundation has been awarded the Changemaker Award by Hamburger Bahnhof, recognising our role in shaping spaces for artistic exchange across borders.

The award was presented during the benefit gala “A Night in Berlin,” where Hamburger Bahnhof introduced four new annual honours celebrating contributions to contemporary art.

Other awardees included Abdulhamid Kircher, Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju, and Jonas Roßmeißl (Studio Award), Mona Hatoum (Lifetime Achievement Award), and Kiran Nadar (Global Arts Patronage Award), a member of Delfina Foundation’s Family of Supporters.

Accepting the award, our founding director, Aaron Cezar, highlighted Delfina’s mission:

‘Institutions alone cannot create change. But we can create the conditions for it. At Delfina Foundation, those conditions are simple: space, time and trust. For more than two decades, Delfina has been a sanctuary for artists — a place to re-engage with the world and expand who is seen and heard.

This award comes at a pivotal moment for Delfina Foundation. Our home is at risk.  We are currently fundraising to secure the future of our building — a place where artists come to live, think together, and test ideas before returning to the world sharper and braver.’

As Cezar noted, this recognition comes at a crucial time, as Delfina Foundation continues our capital campaign, A Home for Artists. The campaign aims to raise £7 million to purchase and renovate our London home, while further developing our programmes to support international practitioners and inspire young UK-based artists.

Cezar’s remarks also underscored both the impact and the precarity of artist-led ecosystems today, as well as the urgent need to sustain spaces dedicated to experimentation and dialogue:

‘Artists are often ahead of their time — asking difficult questions and imagining possibilities the rest of us may not yet be ready to see. At a moment when space for artistic exchange is narrowing around the world, and voices are being silenced, places like Delfina matter. And recognition like this matters.’

The Changemaker Award speaks to Delfina Foundation’s role as a vital space for artists and curators worldwide, having supported more than 600 residencies and creating opportunities for dialogue, experimentation, and new perspectives.