COURAGE

povezovanje zbirk

The church district was established in the sixteenth century thanks to the spread of Calvinism in Upper Hungary. After the Peace Treaty of Trianon (1920), five eparchies (Abaúj, Gömör-Torna, Felsőbordos, Alsóborsod, and Alsózemplén) remained in Hungary. The others went to the Church district west of the Tisza River in Czechoslovakia. The Church district was added to the Church district east of the Tisza River in 1952. In 1957, it became independent again, but with the new eparchies created in 1952 (Heves, Borsod, Abaúj, Zemplén). Today, the Church district includes the Eparchies of Abaúj, Borsod-Gömör, Egervölgy, and Zemplén.

It was after the Velvet Revolution in the year 1989 that possibilities arose for the creation of CU in Slovakia. The Slovak bishops endeavoured to form a Faculty of Pedagogy which would educate Catholic teachers. The charter of the Pedagogical Institute of St. Andrew in Ružomberok was signed on 29 June 1995, in Dolná Krupá, and the first director was prof. RNDr. Jozef Ďurček, CSc.

The Academic Council of the University of Trnava created a Catechetical-pedagogical Faculty of St. Andrew (KPF) in 1996, through the transformation of the Pedagogical Institute of St. Andrew. The KPF was incorporated into the University of Žilina in 1997. Its statute, with the right of Church audit, as is usual for theological faculties, was registered at the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic. The first deans of KPF were prof. RNDr. Jozef Ďurček, Csc. (1996-1998) and prof. RNDr. Pavol Kluvánek, CSc. (1999-2000).

Later, on the basis of KPF, CU came into existence. The Law of the National Council of the Slovak Republic from 10 May 2000, concerning the establishment of the Catholic University in Ružomberok (CU) (this is the official name), established the creation of CU from 1 April 2000, with two faculties: a Faculty of Pedagogy and a Faculty of Philosophy. The Faculty of Theology, with its seat in Košice, was established on 1 July 2003, and the fourth, the Faculty of Health, on 1 July 2005. Although Law 167/2000 created CU as a non-governmental university, with the Law of the National Council of the Slovak Republic about universities, CU became a public university with religious character from 1 April 2002. 

The Research Centre traces its roots to the Archive for Small Press & Communication (ASPC), founded in 1974 by Anne Marsily and Guy Schraenen, and it incorporates more than 40 individual archives and special collections, including the PLG Friesländer’s Mail Art Archive, the Klaus Groh Collection, the Kunstradio Archive, and the Soft Geometry Archives.

The Research Centre’s fundamental task is to collect, develop, and explore artists’ publications since the 1950s. The mediation of the substantial works in the collections and archives also plays a significant role. The medial diversity of the artistic publications is brought to a wide audience through exhibitions, publications, and events.

The Center for Contemporary Art was created by transformation from the original Soros Center for Contemporary Art Prague (SCSU Prague), which was founded in 1992. The Center was founded by the Foundation for Contemporary Art. During the ten years it was financially supported by George Soros, the Center created a large library of five exhibitions (three of which feature the Center on their site as pilot in their fields, namely the Orbis fictus (1996) - the first Czech exhibition (1997/8) and New Engagement (2002). Since 1997 the Center has organized 160 exhibitions of work by young artists, mainly in the Regional Hall and Galerie Jelení Gallery, and the Center also tries to provide foreign visits for artists. In 1994 it was one of the founding members of the Res Artis Residential Resident Center. As part of the ArtsLink project, Czech artists and curators were sent to internships to the United States. So far, the Center has awarded scholarships to about two hundred foreign artists in the Czech Republic. Since 1995 it has been able to send dozens of Czech artists abroad, mostly due to the Financial Trust for Mutual Understanding.

In 1997, the Center opened three studios on Jelení Street in Prague and from 1998 to 2002 rented Čimelice Chateau for exhibition purposes.