Increased art trade and artists exchanges between Atlanta and Mexico could be the results of a recent gift from a Mexican philanthropist’s foundation to the Atlanta Artists Center, according to one of the center’s board members, Irene Bledel.

Atlanta was chosen by a Merida, Mexico-based foundation, the Fine Arts & Design Foundation Miami, to receive $100,000 for the promotion of international art exchanges. Each year, the foundation, started by Mexican philanthropist Freddy Novelo, selects one city in Europe, Latin America, North America or Russia and contributes to non-profit, non-government-supported organizations in that city that promote art and bring foreign art to their city.

“We identified the Atlanta Artists Center as a group that would use these funds in the best way possible to support and promote the arts,” said Mr. Novelo during a recent ceremony in Tampico, Mexico. The foundation presented the award to the center in the form of two $50,000 donations.

The foundation plans to establish an exchange of art and artists between the Atlanta Artists Center, Mexico and other countries, according to the group’s president, Christopher Clark.

“Atlanta was selected because it is a great entré into the United States for international art and artists,” Ms. Bledel told GlobalAtlanta. “This is going to mark the beginning of really opening doors for international art exchange between Mexico and Atlanta,” she said.

The foundation was organized under Mr. Novelo’s umbrella organization Coleccion de Arte y Joyas Imperiales that is a collection of Fabergé eggs and other Russian art. Mr. Novelo is the youngest collector of the 79 jeweled eggs created by Carl Fabergé for the Russian Romanov family and czars Alexander III and Nicolas II between 1885 and 1917. The eggs, some of which were made to commemorate such events as the crowning of Czar Nicolas and the inauguration of the trans-Siberian Railroad, have come to represent imperialist Russian art.

Mr. Novelo and Mr. Clark will be in Atlanta on Saturday, July 25, to accept the Atlanta Artists Center’s “philanthropist of the year” award in person on behalf of the Miami foundation’s efforts.

In addition to Mexico, the foundation has offices in Canada, Europe and the U.S. For more information, go to www.joyasimperiales.com

The Atlanta Artists Center, established in 1954, is the oldest and largest non-government-supported arts organization in the Southeast.

For more information, visit the center’s gallery on Grandview Avenue in Buckhead or see www.atlantaartistscenter.org. Contact the center’s president, Judith Schonbak, at (404) 237-2324. For more information about the donation, contact Ms. Bledel at (404) 351-2550 or ibledel@earthlink.net