In space and time- 15th anniversary of J.W.Fulbright commission in Slovakia

The nature and character of the Fulbright program were formed in 1946 by law, which Senator J. William Fulbright presented to the US Congress with an idea of raising understanding between people of the USA and other countries through study exchanges. Today the Fulbright program is operating in more than 150 countries of the world, and has more than 250 000 participants.
The main goal of this program is to look for individuals that not only accomplish great results and are motivated, but for those who are curious, brave, have a strong interest in education, and those who represent a wide diversity of individual societies.
In 1991 representatives of the Czechoslovak and American governments signed an agreement based on which the Commission of J. William Fulbright was formed in Czechoslovakia.
In 1993 the legitimacy of the Agreement automatically went to the Czech side and representatives of the Slovak and American governments started to negotiate about a possibility to establish a Commission in the Slovak republic. Negotiations were successfully crowned with the signing of the Agreement in 1994 for period of 10 years.
Assignment of the Commission is to support mutual understanding between Slovak republic and USA through educational, scientific and cultural exchanges. The Commission supports student exchanges, internships, research workers, teachers, professors and professionals, and develops collaborations between institutions on different levels of education, public sphere, private sector and non-governmental organizations.
Art and artists play an unbreakable part in exchange programmes of the Commission. Art can cross cultural and language barriers and can help to bind people in dialogues and in ambition to overcome cultural, social and political barriers. At the same time it offers an opportunity for artists to achieve invaluable experience and perspective. The exhibition shows a choice of artist’s works, who took part in the scholarship programme in the USA during 15 years of the Commission’s existence and their creation is introduced by art theoreticians and critics, also participants of the Fulbright programme. We invited a guest Mrs Lee Karpiscak, whose long term collaboration with Slovak artists and theoreticians goes much further than a single programme can cover.