Nitra Gallery

Nitra Gallery was founded on January 1, 1965. It began its activities in the Grand Seminary building –the local Nitra Museum at that time. In the same year the gallery obtained rooms in the former County Hall, where it has been located until today. Nitra Gallery launched the exhibition activities in the County Hall on December 12, 1965 with the exhibition of the older and contemporary artists of Nitra origin.

Thanks to the exhibitions, collectors and cultural-educational activities overlapping the town and regional context, the gallery was granted in 1968 the local and since 1972 the regional sphere of authority. In 1980 Nitra Gallery opened the Youth´s Gallery – an exeptional one of its kind in Slovakia, which provided the space to the young artists from around Slovakia. Nitra Gallery was renamed František Studený Gallery in 1982 in connection with the hereditaments of the painter František Studený. From 1990 it was named State Gallery Nitra. The Gallery was integrated into the Nitra cultural centre after the establishment of the regional cultural centres and was titled Ponitrianska Gallery until 1999 when it was again renamed Nitra Gallery. Nitra Gallery has been a non-profit organization of the Nitra Self-governing region (since 2002) with individual legal entity.

The basic mission of the gallery is to collect, professionally research, evaluate, manage, protect, use and present the artworks of all fine art disciplines of the 20th – 21th century. At the moment, Nitra Gallery disposes with five exhibition spaces: The Representative Halls present important Slovak and international projects, curatorial research and also host individual exhibitions. The Salon is aimed at individual chamber presentations. In 2001 Nitra Gallery launched the activities of the Youth Gallery mapping the work by students and graduates of the fine art academies. The Bunker is a multifunctional space for young alternative art since 2008 and provides students, artists and young curators with the space for experiment in different artistic disciplines – visual, theatre or music. The Colourful Gallery was established in 2010 and offers a space for presentation of the activities of the gallery lecturer.

In 2010, Nitra Gallery launched the Virtual Gallery website by means of which it presents collections, rich art fund and the latest artworks, as well as the works by the older authors ranging from panting, sculpture, drawing, graphics and other media. It serves at the same time a kind of substitution for the missing permanent exhibitions.

Except of the exhibitions, Nitra Gallery offers interesting cultural and educational projects and events:  The Gallery of Music – the cycle of chamber concerts, 4-3-2-1… talkshows with writers, afterpARTy – discussions on fine art with the exhibiting artists, regular events, such as: The Nitra Gallery Week (during the International Day of Museums and Galleries), The White Night (during the International Theatre Festival Divadelná Nitra), Postmutart – the cycle of the contemporary music overlapping the intermedia. There are also different educational programmes for children and students such as: Everybody can create, Playing with art and Young artist. The tradtional event regularly offered to children is The holiday painting during the summer holiday.

The Ministry of Culture of the Slovak republic awarded the Nitra Gallery with the title “The Gallery of the Year” for the years 2014 and 2017 for its outstanding work and the variety of activities for visitors of all age groups.