Turiec Gallery, Martin, Slovakia
Turiec Gallery (Turčianska galéria) in Martin was established in 1983. Its seat is in the historic building of the former District house in the centre of the city Martin. The gallery presents work of artists connected with the Turiec region through chamber author’s exhibitions, extensive retrospectives and group presentations. It also offers the permanent exposition called Slovak Art Modernism in Turiec until the 1960s. Its concept is derived from the knowledge of art-historical facts and milestones which formed and defined the development of Slovak modern art with emphasis on the unique location of the city of Martin. It presents a selection of authors who lived and worked in Martin in the first half of the 20th century.
The Turcian Gallery is a museum-type institution with a regional scope, which also shows its focus and activities. Its primary mission is to build, record, present and protect the collection fund. Its activities include research, cultural, educational and exhibition activities. During its existence, the gallery was in the hands of several founders. At present, it is the founder of the Žilina Self-governing Region. The Galician Gallery provides sponsorship and donations from the contribution of VÚC Žilina, grants from the Ministry of Culture, grants from the city of Martin.
With its presenting activities, the gallery regularly responds to the anniversaries and lifetime jubilees of artists back in the city of Martin and the region of Turiec, and represents the production of Turkish artists of various generations through chamber exhibitions, extensive retrospectives or salon-type collective presentations. Besides exhibitions devoted to regional artists, the gallery presents the creation of established Slovak and Czech artists, but it does not neglect even the youngest generation of artists.
In the short-term projects, the gallery has been preparing periodic exhibition projects for several years: the Biennale of Fantasy (since 1969), the Biennale of Book Arts (1993-2001), currently undergoing the project by organizational and content changes and preparing for its renewal) and the latest biennial project Sculpture in the City (since 2003). At present, the Turcian Gallery offers visitors a permanent exhibition: Modern Modern Art of the 20th Century in Turks (Concept J. Kováčová, 2006) several exhibition projects on the first and second floor of the gallery – about 15 exhibitions per year.
The Turcian Gallery places special attention in its activities for children and youth. In the ludus gallery – this title covers all the creative and educational activities of the gallery, we offer schools the opportunity to spend hours of artistic, aesthetic or ethical education right in the gallery on our accompanying events to individual exhibitions. Regularly, for the primary and elementary schools, besides the lectures on exhibitions and the creative workshops at the Studio of the Child Kocúr, which has been in operation since 2000, regular preparation is being prepared. Older pupils of elementary and secondary school students can get close together in the Teen Art Center premises where they are working with the Citizenship Association All For You – CIT lectures, discussions, and workshops on various topical issues resonating in the company.
The Turcian Gallery is the seat of a former county house. It is located in the city center, at the corner of 29 August Street and Daxner Street, where the main entrance to the building is.
The building was probably built at the end of the 17th century and completed in 1772. It was meant to serve not only for congress meetings, but also for the seat of the court, the county court, the county treasury, the investigation of the criminals, their imprisonment, but also the representation of the Turcianski burghers St. Martin.
In 1933, the Slovak National Gallery was opened in the building of the Slovak National Museum under the name Slovak National Gallery. In its ambitious program, the Picture Gallery had to go into a separate art-collector national institution, but by the mid-1950s it remained only part of the Slovak National Museum in Martin.
In the years 1952 – 1955, Martin attempted to establish a regional gallery. Its headquarters were to be the premises of the former Slovak National Gallery and in 1953 it even started its activity. A year later, two purchases of works of art took place for the upcoming gallery, but despite this effort, it still did not. Instead, all the most important works of art were transferred to the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava and in 1955 it was awarded the statute of the Regional Gallery in the town of Liptovsky Mikulas.
It’s been 30 years since the city got its own gallery, initially as part of the Martina County Memorial. Its independent position defended the gallery as the Gallery of Fine Arts in Martin in 1983 and a year later changed its name to the Turčian Gallery. Since 1987, the Turcian Gallery has been the seat of a county house on Daxner Street no. Second
The first public display of the Turcian Gallery in 1987 was the exhibition of Visual Art of Turkey (Concept: Edita Okálová, Zita Kostrova), which drew visitors to a selection of the old and modern art of the Turcian region. The exhibition was conceived mainly from collections from partner galleries and museums that owned the works that referred to Turiec. The exhibition featured works of art as described in a short sketch of the cultural history of medieval Turks and the modern city of Martin (by the end of the 1950s).