The Joseph Brodsky Fellowship Fund received a major grant from the Zimin Foundation for 2017-2020

PRESS RELEASE: DECEMBER 21, 2017

The Joseph Brodsky Fellowship Fund is very pleased to announce that the Brodsky Fund has received a major grant from the Zimin Foundation for 2017-2020. The grant is designed build the Fund’s institutional infrastructure in order to expand on its rich history of nourishing independent work in Russian arts and letters.

The Zimin Foundation is a non-for-profit organization established by the Zimin Family with the aim of supporting education and science. Founder Dmitry Zimin created Russia’s first philanthropic foundation in 2007. In 2013 he became the first Russian philanthropist to be awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy. In 2015 he was honored with the “Commitment to Science” award of the Ministry of Science and Education of thе Russian Federation. His Dynasty Foundation supported thousands of conferences and seminars as well as individual teachers and researchers in the sciences from 2002-2015. He shares direction of the Zimin Foundation with his son, Boris Zimin.

The Joseph Brodsky Fellowship Fund had its beginnings in 1995, when the poet Joseph Brodsky approached the mayor of Rome to urge the creation of a Russian Academy in Rome. “Italy was a revelation to the Russians,” he wrote to the mayor, referring to Russia’s nineteenth-century tradition of artistic pilgrimage to Italy. “Now it can become the source of their renaissance.” A group of Mr. Brodsky’s friends assembled after his death to continue his effort, by sending Russian writers and artists to Rome for free periods of work and study. Thirty poets and artists have now received three-month Brodsky Fellowships, funded largely by private donations from America and Europe. The generosity of Brodsky's friends and colleagues, seeking to perpetuate his vision of cherishing independent creativity and the free exchange of ideas at the crossroads of world culture, that makes the fellowships possible. The organizers like to think of it as a “living memorial,” feeding Russia’s creative work into the future.

The Brodsky and Zimin Foundations share a vision of supporting ongoing exploration and independence of thought and initiative in Russian intellectual enterprise. The Brodsky Foundation welcomes this opportunity to join in the distinguished legacy of the Zimin family philanthropies.

For more information: info@josephbrodsky.org