Nová Cvernovka

Nová Cvernovka is the largest creative and cultural center in Slovakia. The Cvernovka Foundation was established in 2015 with the aim of preserving the community of creative studios that was formed in the old Cvernovka on Páričková street in Bratislava. As a result of the gentrification of this location, we were forced to leave the original building, and 35 studios finally moved to the former secondary chemical school on Račianska street. Nowadays, Nová Cvernovka represents a successful model in which an abandoned building in poor condition (and in public ownership) has been transformed into a living ecosystem focused on creativity, innovation, culture, social and environmental sustainability. We are an interdisciplinary center with more than 130 studios and 450 creative professionals.

In 2022-23, the Cvernovka Foundation implemented strategic planning, the result of which was the redefinition of values ​​and vision and the determination of the organization's long-term aspirations. Our values ​​are openness, creativity, responsibility, regeneration and cooperation. Our vision is to be an expert and resilient organization that manages the physical and social transformation of an abandoned site into an accessible oasis of creativity, openness, regeneration, cooperation and a sustainable future for all. Our aspiration is to develop the 5 main pillars of the Nová Cvernovka Campus in close cooperation with our community: Creative Center; Center for Arts and Culture; Center for Urban Ecological Regeneration; Center for Social Innovation; The Heart of the Neighborhood.

Today, more than 40 people work for the Cvernovka Foundation, who take care of the operation and development of our campus. Our team is divided into several separate departments: Administration and Maintenance, Development, Cultural Center, Communication Department, Financial Department, Fundraising. The heads of individual departments together form the executive body of the Foundation. At the same time, the foundation has the Board and Board of Trustees, in which the Bratislava self-governing region, from which we lease the premises, is also represented. An important pillar of our work is the involvement of the community, which on the one hand manages several long-term projects, and with which we consult fundamental issues of the development of Nová Cvernovka.

Know-how of Nová Cvernovka is a unique combination of the essences of the creative sector and civil society. Balancing between our non-governmental mission and business reality forces us to constantly consider different perspectives, discuss, innovate, reevaluate. And even if this means that some processes take an "infinitely" long time, we believe that this leads us to the best possible solutions and decisions.

Marek Adamov, the guru of Slovak culture, wrote this in his book Cyklokultúra: "The largest cultural and creative community in Slovakia in terms of area and number of "inhabitants" is a surprise to me again and again and proof that it can be done when you want to, and especially when someone knows how to do it. Nová Cvernovka should be a separate subject at schools of cultural management or a place of compulsory practice to learn how (not) to manage and (not) to go crazy. To keep together a complex of thousands of square meters, where hundreds of people go to work, and at the same time fulfill a cultural function in the form of a year-round program, provide quality services and not go bankrupt, repay loans and balance on the edge of all legal, construction and bureaucratic requirements.”