START21ART Presented Their Vision of the Future
With the announcement of the results, the KUBIKUM FOUNDATION successfully concluded the third edition of the Czech-Slovak art competition START21ART, focused on the theme “FUTURE”.
START21ART is a competition intended for fourth-year students of secondary schools with an artistic focus. Each school had the opportunity to nominate up to one-tenth of its graduating students to represent the institution in the competition.
This year's competition was announced on 21 September 2023, when registration for schools and their selected students was also opened. A total of 18 secondary schools from Slovakia and 12 schools from the Czech Republic participated. Altogether, 124 students fulfilled the competition requirements.
The task for the students was to create an artwork exclusively for this edition of START21ART on the theme “FUTURE”. The competition consisted of two evaluation stages. The aim of Stage I was to select the 21 best works from each country. As a result, 42 students each received EUR 210, while the two winning schools received EUR 2,121 each. In the final stage, the artworks were evaluated by a jury composed of representatives of the participating schools and personalities from the field of art education nominated by the organiser. The jury included Associate Professor Patrik Ševčík, Associate Professor Marek Sibinský, and Dr. Boris Schubert. The works were also evaluated by the previous year's Stage I winner for TOP21SK, Artur Parajňák, and the overall winner of the previous final, Sabína Krivánková.
Following the publication of the results, all competition artworks were included in a public online auction held through the KUBIKUM register. The proceeds from the auction were awarded to the artists in support of art and artistic education.
The KUBIKUM FOUNDATION contributed financial and non-financial prizes with a total value exceeding EUR 15,000 to support the development of art and artistic education.
After the overall evaluation of the competition, a ceremonial award presentation took place at the Hotel Boss in Žilina.
The theme of the future is particularly relevant in today's world, which is characterised by constant change and uncertainty. By encouraging young artists to explore this topic, the competition provided them with a platform to share their perspectives on the future and contribute to the ongoing discussion about what lies ahead.
We believe that organising the START21ART competition is meaningful and valuable work, and we would like to wish all participants every success in their further studies and artistic careers.