Tatra banka Prize for Arts

Since its premiere in 1996, the Tatra banka Prize for arts has became a synonym of prestigious award of the highest artistic quality in Slovakia and by this prize, Tatra banka tries to support the Slovak arts and its personalities. The prize is connected with a financial grant in the amount of SKK 150,000 (EUR 4,979.09)¹ for each winner in addition to the prize awarded „in memoriam". During these nine years, the bank awarded 28 artists, including four „in memoriam", to whom the bank donated, for other art projects, total of SKK 3,600,000 (EUR 119,498.11)¹. The jury selecting winners based on their activities in the given year consists of famous personalities of the Slovak culture and artistic life, as for example Jozef Bednárik, Peter Dvorský, Emil Horváth, Daniel Hevier, Peter Michalica, Peter Nagy, etc. The prizes are awarded in three of eight categories:

• literature,
• film, television, and radio,
• fine art work,
• musical work,
• performance (acting, singing, dancing, ballet, music, etc.)
• extraordinary creative work of the year;
• life´s work,
• the best debut.

Pohoda Festival

The Pohoda Festival is a multimedia international festival organized since 1997. During six years of its existence, it has become one of the most prestigious and best music festival within the whole former Czechoslovakia. Together with accompanying events, as e.g. exhibitions of photography and painting and sculpture works by young artists, street theatre, tea rooms, etc., the festival represents an exceptional show of young non-commercial art. The festival is characteristic by its precise set up, great atmosphere, and good services. Tatra banka has become the general partner of the festival after thorough consideration in 2003, and this activity represents its approach to the young and mid generation´s interest in good music of Slovak and world performers.

"Reborn Dances" Festival

The national culture festival named „Reborn Dances" brings new choreography, whose aim is to enlive and enrich the folklore dances in Slovakia. The festival has a three year history and is mainly focused on dancing, musical, and the best singing scenes in this area in Slovakia. It contains also dancing houses, special seminars, exhibition of photography, fashion shows inspired by national costumes, traditional market, and individual music programs, etc. Tatra banka has decided to be a general partner of the festival, trying to show the traditional Slovak art and values to the wide range of folk music connoisseurs, and thus to create a bridge to the future in order to keep the positions of this type of art, which historically belonged to Slovakia. The primary criterion for Tatra banka to be engaged in the project was the quality of artistic performance.

Žilina Town Theatre, Midsummer Night in Žilina

In 2004, "Žilina Midsummer Night" was the initial project in the new history of the Žilina Town Theatre, existing for 13 years. The aim of the project was two-day celebration of the Midsummer Night in the form of theatre and fairy tales, return to traditions, and revelation of the ancient history and traditions of the regions of the V4 countries and the original folk culture. The project was participated by popular artists from the Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary. The program started by the „Midsummer Night´s Dream". It continued by traditional theatrical forms - market theatre, fairy tales, masquerades, midsummer night´s fires, witches, etc. The project culminated in a folk festival in the streets of the town. Tatra banka, as a stabile part of the Žilina region, could not be left out of the project which is based on traditional historical children´s fairy tales by Dobšinský, and decided to support the project by the amount of SKK 800,000 (EUR 26,555.14)¹.

Košice State Philharmonic Orchestra

The KSP was founded in 1968 as the second professional symphonic orchestra in Slovakia. Already since 1956, it has organized an international music festival named Košice Music Spring which belongs to the oldest music festivals in Slovakia. The Košice Music Spring currently represents a forum for confrontation of interpretation performances of local and foreign soloist and chamber ensembles. It represents not only various types of concerts, but in the last years it includes also fine arts and exhibitions installed in the House of Arts. The festival is every year attended also by the State Theatre Opera in Košice. Tatra banka has been based in Košice for a long time and pays attention to the efforts of the supporters of the State Philharmonic Orchestra for creation of a forum of global format, and therefore, it could not but support such activity.