The mission of the Slovak National Gallery (SNG) is not only to collect and preserve art, but also to look for ways to provide access to it, to educate, inspire and mediate a path for the general public to historical as well as modern and contemporary fine art culture.
The gallery was founded on July 29, 1948, and one year later it organized its first exhibition entitled Výstava obrazov starých majstrov zo zbierok SNG / Paintings of the Old Masters Paintings from its collections. This institution, which started out with two rooms and roughly 500 books and 500 artworks, has grown into a gallery with almost 65,000 collection items, many of which are part of the national cultural heritage. You can find Slovak as well as foreign artists among the collections of paintings, sculptures, drawings, graphic art, naïve art, photography, stage design, architecture, applied arts and new media art.
The Slovak National Gallery, besides its premises in Bratislava, consists of a network of four branch gallery facilities: Zvolen Castle, Strážky Chateau in Spišská Belá, the Ľudovít Fulla Gallery in Ružomberok and Schaubmar’s Mill in Pezinok.
