TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary

Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) is an international art and advocacy foundation established in 2002 by philanthropist and art patron Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza. Based in Madrid and working in association with the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, the foundation stewards the TBA21 Collection and develops exhibitions, educational programs, and public engagement initiatives, with key activities also based in Venice through Ocean Space and in Jamaica. Driven by artists and collaboration, TBA21 understands art and culture as catalysts for social and environmental transformation and promotes peace as an ongoing practice grounded in life, diversity, and coexistence.

TBA21–Academy, the foundation’s research arm, fosters transdisciplinary research, artistic production, and environmental advocacy to deepen relationships with the Ocean and wider ecologies. For over a decade, it has generated new knowledge through long-term collaborations between art, science, policy, and conservation, developing projects such as Ocean Space, The Current, Ocean-Archive.org, Organismo, and Bauhaus of the Seas Sails. The Academy also supports artists’ residencies at the Alligator Head Foundation in Jamaica, an organization co-founded by TBA21 dedicated to marine conservation through the intersection of science, art, and community.