TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary is a leading international art and advocacy foundation. Established in 2002 by philanthropist and art patron Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, the foundation stewards the TBA21 Collection and its outreach activities, including exhibitions, public initiatives, and educational programs. 

Based in Madrid and working in association with the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, TBA21 maintains key hubs in Venice, Italy, and Portland, Jamaica. All activity at TBA21 is collaborative, artist-driven, and rooted in the belief that art and culture can catalyze social and environmental transformation. The foundation’s mission is to nurture a culture of peace, understood as an ongoing practice that affirms life, diversity, and coexistence. 

TBA21–Academy is the foundation’s research and advocacy arm, fostering deeper relationships with the Earth’s hydrosphere and its extended ecologies through the lens of art to activate new forms of care and collective action. Operating as an incubator for collaborative inquiry, research-based artistic production, and environmental advocacy, the Academy works across exhibitions, commissions, fieldwork, residencies, pedagogical programs, and assemblies, catalyzing new forms of knowledge emerging from the exchanges between art, science, policy, and civic engagement.

TBA21–Academy’s flagship projects include Ocean Space, an art and science center in Venice; the independent studies program Organismo | Art in Applied Critical Ecologies, designed in collaboration with Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid; The Current fellowship program; and the online initiative Ocean-Archive.org with OCEAN / UNI. 

The Academy also offers artistic residencies at the Alligator Head Foundation in Jamaica, an organization focused on the intersection of science, art, and community, launched in 2015 with TBA21’s support.