illy has announced the finalists of its 2011 AuthentiCity photography contest as a follow-up to the last year’s inaugural competition, launched the coffee brand in partnership with the NYC-based School of Visual Arts (SVA). In its second year, the project is again encouraging emerging talents to come up with their visual personal interpretations of the big city and discover its unique sprit. The jury panel selected Phil Kline, Jessica Miller and David Rapoport as this year’s finalists—in 2010, there were five people, and they have been commissioned with the task to create new pieces of work, which will help the judges to select the winner.

On June 8, Bombay Sapphire made the situated on the Thames bank Battersea Power Station illuminate with a 3D spectacular projection. The imagination was the key-point of the Bombay Sapphire ‘Project Your Imagination Competition’. Launched in December 2010 the famous gin brand asked people from all the world to demonstrate their imagination by submitting ideas including drawings and poems, to be used as the inspiration for the Bombay Sapphire 3D show.

New event 5 Days La Roma within 365 days project by The ABSOLUT Company took place in Mexico City, May 2428, 2011. 365 days is a continuous initiative where ABSOLUT explores creativity in the most interesting places of the world getting international artists to take part in it. The last year it was 30 Days New York. This time there were two hotspotsMexico City and its art scene. La Roma, the artistic area of the city offers galleries, institutions, architecture and people who contributed to its bohemian but still historical aura.

In 2011, the BMW Group, one of the most successful manufacturers of automobiles and motorcycles in the world, is celebrating 40 years of its cultural involvement at the Venice Biennale. The success of the BMW Group has always been built on long-term thinking and responsible action, as well as on its support of wide range of cultural events. Among them the most famous are: the BMW Guggenheim Lab, the Nationalgalerie Prize and the Hungarian Pavilion.

Levi’s has released a new art-inspired product as part of its ongoing collaboration with the MOCA museum started in Los Angeles in April—the jeanswear brand opened its new Levi’s Workshop at the ‘Art In the Streets’ exhibition of the museum and on May 24 it has released a hilarious short movie ‘Outside In: The Story of Art In the Streets,’ which showcases the process of arranging the event and interviews with graffiti influencers, “documents the artist’s creative process, their pitfalls with the law, the poetic impermanence of their craft and the artists’ evolution from the back seat of a cop car to the walls of a well-respected institution” as the synopsis states.

Volkswagen is now rolling out its ‘Think Blue.’ initiative in the United States. The aim is to encourage eco-friendly mobility and progressive ideas for responsible action in everyday life. The U.S. launch coincides with the partnership between Volkswagen and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York as well as today’s inauguration of the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee—one of the world’s ‘greenest’ automobile factories.