In the Živa Award ceremony for the best museum of South East Europe, which was held in Skopje on 7 November, The Museum of Contemporary Art of the Republic of Srpska received a special recognition for its work.
The Museum was nominated for this prestigious international award in June 2014, alongside ten museums from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Macedonia, Montenegro, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia, followed by a complicated evaluation procedure, which included a visit by members of the jury to each of the competing museums.
The Živa Award is presented by the Forum of Slavic Cultures, an international foundation established in 2004, which gathers 13 Slavic countries, whose aim is recognising outstanding achievements in the field of work with movable and immovable heritage, promoting the common Slavic cultural heritage, and encouraging the sharing of knowledge and experiences.
The jury comprised ten museologists from Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Russia, the Czech Republic and Montenegro, headed by Massimo Negri (Italy), Director of the European Museum Academy (EMA) and Dr. Karl Borromäus Murr (Germany), president of the jury. The jury evaluated several aspects of museum work, putting a particular emphasis on exceptional and creative ways to use museum collections combined with innovative interpretive approaches.
The Museum of Contemporary Art of the Republic of Srpska was awarded for its creativity, as well as the role it has played in its local community and the support it has lent young artists.
The Živa Award was established in 2012, named after the Slavic goddess Živa, who epitomised life, longevity, youth, beauty, gentleness, vitality and fertility, attributes that should also pertain to Slavic cultural heritage.
