Mission
The Central Slovak Gallery is located in the center of Banská Bystrica and is a regional gallery with a programming focus on the presentation, research, and creation of a collection of modern and contemporary art. The gallery profiles itself as an open institution. Alongside the professional collection-building activities of the gallery, it offers the general public specialized curatorial and educational projects with an expanded accompanying program featuring other art forms such as contemporary literature, dance, music, performance, and film.
Exhibition and educational activities are carried out in three historical buildings situated in the city center. Short-term exhibitions rotate within the buildings of the former town hall Praetorium and the Bethlen House. A permanent exhibition of his paintings is open to the public in the family villa of the artist Dominik Skutecký, which includes a garden.
With a history spanning over 60 years, the gallery previously specialized, in addition to its regional focus, in the research and presentation of artistic printmaking. The extensive gallery collection represents the art of printmaking from the second half of the 20th century in Slovakia in an almost comprehensive form, along with a selection of foreign works. Among the prominent artists active in the Central Slovak region since the monitored 19th century, the most remarkable figure is the painter Dominik Skutecký, who settled here after working for many years in Vienna and Venice. His painting technique and development stand out due to his mastery of the qualities of traditional Italian painting, and in a later period, his specific solution to the light issues of luminist (impressionist) painting at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Within the reflection of art in public spaces, the gallery documents artworks in the territory of Banská Bystrica created between 1945 and 2015. At the same time, it opens a discussion about the contemporary character of art in public spaces, its status in the local environment, and its possible protection. In its current focus on modern and contemporary art, the gallery’s collection-building activity is dominated mainly by an extensive acquisition of works by Stano Filko, an artist of the Slovak neo-avant-garde generation of the 1960s. Filko gained international recognition as a creator of installations and environments, and he is considered a pioneer in the field of conceptual art in Slovakia.
In the field of gallery pedagogy, the Central Slovak Gallery has developed a structure for working with the public and schools through short-term guided tours, animation programs, creative workshops, as well as long-term special educational programs. Since 2016, it has also revived the tradition of educational-presentation exhibitions, which were the first of their kind in Slovakia (1989) to be implemented right here at the Central Slovak Gallery. The goal of these diverse educational programs and exhibition projects is to teach visitors how to perceive, accept, and interpret works of visual art.
The collection fund of the Central Slovak Gallery includes over 13,000 collection objects across art forms such as prints, drawings, paintings, sculptures, art objects, and other media. Digitized collection items can be found at www.webumenia.sk.
Deed of Foundation of the Central Slovak Gallery
Code of Ethics for Employees of the Central Slovak Gallery
Amendment to the Deed of Foundation of the Central Slovak Gallery
Collection Acquisition Concept and Acquisition Plan of the Gallery
History
The Central Slovak Gallery was established on September 1, 1956, by separating from the Regional Museum of Local History as the Regional Gallery. In 1960, it came under the administration of the city as the City Gallery in Banská Bystrica. In 1963, under the name Regional Gallery, it was attached to the Regional Center for State Monument Care and Nature Protection in Banská Bystrica. From 1991 to 2007, with a break between 1998 and 1999 when it was managed by the Regional Office as the Banská Bystrica State Cultural Center, the gallery operated under the name State Gallery in Banská Bystrica. In 2006, the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic transferred the gallery under the Banská Bystrica Self-Governing Region as the Central Slovak Gallery.
The collection-building activity of the gallery is continuously fulfilled each year thanks to donations from artists and purchases. The gallery acquires financial resources for acquisitions and the protection of collection items mainly through grant support (currently the Slovak Arts Council).
In creating and organizing a variety of accompanying artistic and educational programs, the gallery has long established partnerships and cooperated with several artistic and cultural entities, such as the civic association ars_litera (author readings of Anasoft litera with contemporary writers), the civic association Laputa, and Záhrada – Center for Independent Culture.
The Central Slovak Gallery is a member organization of ICOM.
Gallery Names since 1956
| 1956 – 60 | Regional Gallery (Krajská galéria) |
| 1960 – 63 | City Gallery (Mestská galéria) |
| 1963 – 91 | Regional Gallery (Oblastná galéria) |
| 1991 – 98 | State Gallery in Banská Bystrica (Štátna galéria v Banskej Bystrici) |
| 1998 – 99 | Banská Bystrica State Cultural Center (Banskobystrické štátne kultúrne centrum) |
| 1999 – 07 | State Gallery in Banská Bystrica (Štátna galéria v Banskej Bystrici) |
| 2007 – present | Central Slovak Gallery (Stredoslovenská galéria) |
Gallery Directors
| 1958 – 1967 | Academic Painter Viliam Ruttkay-Nedecký | |
| 1968 – 1985 | Academic Painter Ján Paľo | |
| 1986 – 1990 | PaedDr. Stanislav Tropp | |
| 1990 – 1992 | PhDr. Viliam Dúbravský | |
| 1992 – 1995 | PhDr. Alena Vrbanová | |
| 1995 – 1996 | PhDr. Viliam Dúbravský | |
| 1996 – 1999 | Mgr. Branislav Rezník | |
| 1999 – 2006 | PhDr. Alena Vrbanová | |
| 2007 – 2008 | Mgr. art. Štefan Kocka | |
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2009 – 2022 2022 |
Mgr. art. Maroš Rovňák, ArtD.
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