The aims and achievements of the Debrecen International Colony of Artists Debrecen, Hungary

The Debrecen International Colony of Artists was first organised in the summer of 2006, based on citizens’ initiative and with the aim of starting a new tradition, in the spirit of opening toward contemporary fine arts. It is a worthy continuation of the very conscious efforts of the city, targeted at the elevation of the cultural importance of Debrecen, which was also indicated by the recent opening of the Kölcsey Centre and MODEM, the city’s new museum of modern and contemporary arts. In our opinion, the city of Debrecen has a good chance of becoming the artistic centre of not only its narrower region, but also the interregional area. The artists’ colony was also launched with the intention of serving as a foundation for the long-term cultural role of the city in the region, as well as to counterbalance the capital-centred nature of Hungarian art life. In addition, it is also our hope that it would initiate a dialogue between different artists and branches of arts both domestically and internationally.

The artists' colony is consciously building up its network of connections and formulating its programme with the help of the artistic directors and the artistic council. We invite artists for addressing specific, pre-determined themes. We make a conscious effort to approach artists of outstanding quality who have significant artistic achievements in the given theme, have dealt with it before or their work is related to it. We are looking for innovative artists as well as young talents whose output seems to indicate predestination for significant artistic achievements. For the purpose of reaching out to young (relatively unknown) artists, we have set up the “submit portfolio” function of our website, which will be supplemented in the future with an open competition opportunity.