We invest in culture because we need leaders and projects to remind us where we come from, who we are and where we are heading to. We want that innovative cultural projects be recognized and appreciated in Romania, and that youth dream to become the cultural leaders of tomorrow. We support or create projects which educate the new generation that makes our world go round.

What projects do we support?

Performing arts

We are the partners of the new generation both in the Sibiu International Theatre Festival, in Bucharest National Theatre Festival, the National Festival of Youth Theatre from Alexandria, but we also get involved in production projects, such as the musical «West Side Story» (produced for FNT in 2015) or the play «Apa de Mina» (Act Theatre, 2016) but also theater tours «Manifest pentru dialog» (Radu Stanca Theatre- Sibiu, 2015 and 2016) and Vanilla Skype (Act Theatre 2016).

If you care to read reviews of these events, we invite you on Scena9.ro:

http://www.scena9.ro/article/13-spectacole-de-vazut-la-fnt

http://www.scena9.ro/article/ideo-ideis-viitor

http://www.scena9.ro/article/toto-evadeaza-cu-teatrul-din-ferentari

http://www.scena9.ro/article/fits-2016-jurnal-festival-alice-galerie-foto

http://www.scena9.ro/article/imi-place-sa-fac-de-ras-prostia-umana

In 2016, we decided to support Apollo 111, the newest independent theatre in Bucharest, founded by actor Bogdan Dumitrache.

Contemporary art is another strategic pillar of the bank, 2016 being the year in which we initiated a series of partnerships in this area.

We are the main partner of the event White Night of the Art Galleries, the project in which galleries and cultural places in 10 cities are opened for the wide public encouraging the consumption of contemporary art and the understanding of the phenomenon.

BRD initiated within the Night of the Art Galleries a cultural hot-spot, Rezidenta Scena9, a historical building which belonged to the royal family, now being owned by the bank, with the intention to include it in the cultural life of Bucharest. Rezidenta hosted the central exhibition of the event «No men’s land», which got together works from the 10 participating cities and could be visited for a month.

If you want to know how was at No men’s land, we invite you to read Andra Matzal’s piece on Scena9 or to visit the Facebook page of Rezidenta Scena9.

 As we noticed that more and more children are interested to discover and understand the works they see, we launched the workshop “Care-i faza cu arta contemporana?” (What’s the catch with contemporary art?). Contemporary art is too little promoted nowadays within the formal educational programs, especially at small ages, consequently we consider that this kind of projects is required.

The partnership with the Eastwards Prospectus Art Gallery began in the end of the year 2015, when we supported the exhibition of one of the representative artists of the 80’s Romanian art generation, Cristian Paraschiv. Convulsion Ltd. was an essay-exhibition, an attempt to re-read its works, constituted, during several decades, around the idea of body. 

The partnership continued with the OTNOT exhibition of Tania Mouraud, major personality of the artistic stage in France, who had a personal exhibition in Romania for the first time, her father’s country of origin. The exhibition included works created starting with the year 2000, works that revolve around photography, video, sound and digital art.

If you want to find out more about Tania’s exhibition, read Andra Matzal’s article on Scena9.ro

In the end of 2016 we inaugurated the exhibition of an artist who represented Croatia at the Biennial Art in Venice in 2015, Damir Ocko. Repeat After Me is an exhibition which brings together works of the artist that explores the mechanisms of the human body and its relationship with the social and political context.

Read here and here two points of view about this exhibition which attracted both the attention of the public and of the critics.

Classical music

We love classical music because it combines the amazing personal commitment of musicians with the team effort of an orchestra or of a chorus in which the force and harmony of the group is higher than the sum of the individual talents. 

The projects we support aim at determining us to go back to the original places of classical music, the parlors of the manors or manorial courts.

If you want to find out why we love classical music and what means to have behind tens of thousands of hours of practice, we recommend you to read an interview with the pianist Eduard Kunz, whom BBC Music Magazine named among the best ten young pianists in the world.

SoNoRo Conac started from the idea of giving back to chamber music its original place, cosy, appropriate for cultural dialogue and active listening. This project aims at making public opinion aware of the numerous renovated heritage buildings - fabulous, spectacular, elegant buildings which need to re-enter in the cultural circuit.

Scena9

In 2016 we created scena9.ro, the young cultural journalism platform which offers daily orientation instruments on the cultural world map.

Scena9 aims at organizing things in the cultural actuality, writing about what is relevant, new or undiscovered, what adds value to our cultural scenery, inciting to dialogue between cultural and artistic areas which, usually, do not intersect. It watches the new generation of creators in various fields, from art to science, following their projects and their evolution.