Are is a curatorial group which was founded in 2013 in Prague, born of the need for a more flexible and diverse mode of artistic production and its related fields.

It currently consists of Zuzana Blochová, Edith Jeřábková and Nela Klajbanová. Are builds on a collective approach to individual projects, develops international teamwork, and collaborates with academic, educational, cultural and artistic institutions and independent initiatives.

Currently, Are is working on a number of diverse projects of artistic and curatorial research and organizational activities. One of them consists in making public the archive and interpretation of the director, scriptwriter and artist Esther Krumbachová. Another is the Institute of Anxiety, founded by artists Barbora Kleinhamplová and Eva Koťátková, which aims to create a space for the study of the phenomenon of anxiety. Part of this research project also depends on the acquired forest property near the town of Hnátnice in the Orlický mountains, which has become a cultural and artistic laboratory for exploring the problems connected to climate grief, the accelerating processes of degradation of agricultural and forest areas, the advancing drought, and the dying out of small animals and insects. The project LES: Partnership for Cultivation, Theory and Art enlivens this forest community with workshops, lectures, performances, etc.

In collaboration with Kunsthale Oslo and Reading University, Are is also at work on the project EuroNoize, by the art duo Pil and Galia Kollectiv. EuroNoize takes a polemical position against the musical competition Eurovision, looking instead at the DIY music scene including bands of visual musicians in both a local and global context.

The Perpedes Grant will be used solely for the project of the Ester Krumbachová archive.

The cultural center Farmstudio is located in the Kokořínsko nature reserve on a unique former farm built in the beginning of the 19th century in the village of Vysoká. It provides space for creative residencies, symposia, courses, workshops, festivals, open air art school events, as well as musical, theater and dance training camps, and other events from the sphere of contemporary culture (such as photography, painting, spatial works, performance, site-specific works, ergotherapy, alternative lifestyles, etc.) Apart from organizing their own exhibition program and events, Farmstudio offers space to other cultural subjects.

Farmstudio’s main spheres of activity are found in contemporary, non-mainstream art, the preservation of historical legacy (renovation and reconstruction), physical labor (considered a worthwhile activity in and of itself), cultivation of fruit (community growing and fruit drying), autonomy, openness, cooperation, and confrontation. The association collaborates with the initiative Alternativa pro Vysokou and the Vysoká Sokol and also publishes the Farmstudio Journal. The association supports the fostering of relationships and the residents’ shared responsibility to the place where they live, and also brings new stimuli from the super-regional and international cultural spheres. Farmstudio was founded in 2014 by Pavel Matela and continues with the support of the association Farmstudio – Center for Art and Culture, which was founded at the beginning of 2018.

The creative and dramaturgic production unit Fujaré has been active in the region of Rožnov pod Radhoštěm since 2016. It organizes the Hlasy international music festival of human voice, Hudební fujaré, a series of concerts where folklore meets other genres, a live summer cinema, theater and music workshops, lectures and debates focused on issues of civic society, as well as art installations, public interventions and performances. Fujaré was born as a civic initiative and does not have a space of its own, and thus workss in close cooperation with 3. etáž, the Rožnov municipal library, the Brill factory and the Wallachian Open Air Museum. It attempts to connect the traditional with the independent, the center with the periphery, in an effort to develop the latent possibilities of their surroundings. Fujaré consists of Honza Petružela, Pavel Trčka, Jiří Krumpoch and friends.

Krajinou Přílivu (Tideland) is an association which builds on autonomous civic initiative and which gradually formed around 2014. It organizes socio-cultural events for various segments of the public. The first project was focused on post-industrial space, and the following years saw the addition of events dedicated to social and artistic topics. Krajinou Přílivu has organized photographic, sculptural and educational exhibitions (e.g., important people or anniversaries from the history of Czechia), film screenings, meetings with experts and with the public. Since 2018, they have closely collaborated with Sdružení Serpens, based in the Palmovka synagogue.

The topic of historical memory and its transmission to later generations is very important for Krajinou Přílivu, as is the updating of such memory in light of new understanding gleaned from contemporary research. Their objective is to remind, reproduce and rejuvenate historically important, as well as forgotten, situations, persons and stories, while always retaining a critical distance from the subject matter.

The association’s ambitions are to raise consciousness about particular topics in contemporary ways and to work with information in a manner which supports humanist values.

Multiplace is a network connecting people and organizations focused on the overlap of media and technology with art, culture and the wider society. The Multiplace open platform is mainly focused on the support of media art and on critical reflection of life and culture within the context of new technologies. Between 2002 – 2017, Multiplace organized an international, non-competitive festival of new media art and network culture which took place at various places around Slovakia, Czechia and other countries. Since 2008, the Multiplace association has also operated an open cultural server for internet-based cultural and artistic projects.

The server offers free web hosting, internet services and guidance, and today is home to more than a hundred web sites for artists, activists, cultural and social workers and their organizations based in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and other places around the world. In addition, the server supports dozens of email addresses, databases, mailing lists and specialized software applications.

The Prázdné domy (Empty Houses) Association develops and operates an online database primarily focused on documenting interesting structures which are threatened or vacant, and also documents structures which have already been demolished, saved or have otherwise found their use. The association aims to inspire the activity of individuals or communities towards saving similar structures, motivating them to take an interest in their surroundings, while promoting the option to further develop their community-focused, interdisciplinary or artistic activities.

They organize guided tours through interesting houses, and often offer possible solutions to it particular condition. They give examples of gradual and low-threshold renovation, and offer possibilities for the temporary use of the building, as well as publicize those cases when the structures have been saved. Prázdné domy offers help through fundraising for the renovation of historical buildings, organizing work parties for repairing or cleaning the buildings, or by adopting them. They also organized a conference focused on the subject of empty houses which has brought together politicians, proprietors, and the interested public.

Přezpolní is connected to the cultural platform Kulturák Archa which came out of Jiří Příhoda’s installation of sculptural architecture in the town of Lubná near Litomyšl. The Přezpolní (Cross-country) association is simultaneously a gallery, as well as a center for education and community-building.

The association organizes exhibitions of contemporary artists and students of the Environment studio at FAVU VUT in Brno. It operates its residency program in Kurník, whose spatial constellation is three quarters for hen-keeping, and one quarter is left for the use of residents or random passersby. In the summer, they organize a festival of experimental and electroacoustic music called Bučení which uses an unfolding DIY stage (originally a raft), and the backstage consists of a caravan.

Another place which is currently being built is 5sil, “five platforms,” for the co-habitation of people and animals. The association acquired the silos from the Lubná Agricultural Marketing Co-op, and they gradually transformed the space for artistic and educational activities connected to the keeping of pets and animals. The association also organizes artistic and architectural workshops. Their activities directly inspire and broaden cultural options for local residents.

Spolek Zvěř (Society of Animals) was born out of the spaces of the former Karnola textile factory near the Hranice city center. In 2017, the local community put their wide array of craft skills to use and renovated the building. They created a unique space which has become a place for meeting and the cultural development of those who are interested in culture, art, ecology and civic life. Members of the association organize lectures, discussions, workshops, cultural and educational events, community events and activities which support neighborly spirit. It serves as a meeting place for the residents of Hranice and of the nearby area. The organizers try to create an inspiring environment intended for self-development, community building and activating the public to participation in municipal and community matters.

The KUŠ Association for environmental and multicultural education has for a long time been working in the region of Vysočina, focused on alternative methods of education working outside of school institutions, and making use of contemporary art techniques, placing a strong emphasis on activism and the environment.

Their activities are closely connected to the space of a former forester’s cottage called Na Kuši, near Jihlava between Rohozná and Nový Rychnov, where they also regularly organize activities for children and youth. During their events (workshops, camps, etc.), the participants learn the rules of living alongside nature by means of alternative pedagogy, games, creative workshops and theatre events. The KUŠ association’s teachers introduce young people to contemporary artistic approaches – action painting, performance, happenings, and site-specific art. At the same time, they involve and spark the participants’ interest in their immediate surroundings and inspire them to civic activism by addressing particular cases – recently for example, they have been focusing on the issue of nuclear waste. The topics naturally come out of their local reality, and include socio-historical sources and mythologies (examples of their existing projects include 2014 Filmák Podzimák, 2015 HRAnaART, 2016 Šajeni, 2017 ArtBrutar, and 2018 ARCHA ARTU).

The association also works in tandem with the local charity Oblastní Charita Jihlava, and the Vranov u Brna children’s home. Their forest sanctuary invites and features diverse guests from the fields of culture, science, theatre and art.

They call themselves Zvěřinec (Menagerie) and all of them are natives to the Zlín region. This association of filmmakers, dramatists, scenographers, technicians, producers and musicians operates in the area of Zlín, and its goal is to open the region to artistic projects from outside and to support local culture. Since 2018, they have been organizing concerts, theatre performances, workshops, lectures and have thus been treating their Zlín-based audience to the contemporary cultural scene. Zvěřinec mostly works by organizing four regular events: the concert platform Zvěřinové nehody, the multi-genre open-air festival Slavnost v houští, the maker’s symposium Jizva and the PoSvícení – a festival of light and of the approaching winter solstice.