Instructions for competing students

The KUBIKUM FOUNDATION, with the support of CENTRAL ART REGISTER, announces the international year of the art competition for selected students in the final year of secondary schools with an artistic focus, under the name START21ART.
The aim of the competition is to support and promote the work of young artists at the start of their professional career, to prepare them for artistic practice and the profession, to help them gain experience and authorial skills, and to present themselves to the wider public online.

Competition timetable:

21. 9. 2026	announcement of the START21ART competition,
21. 9. 2026 – 30. 9. 2026	school registration via the online form at www.start21art.cz, www.start21art.pl, www.start21art.hu or www.start21art.sk (according to the country in which the school is based),
1. 10. 2026 – 21. 11. 2026	registration of the student and the competition work via the online form at www.start21art.cz, www.start21art.pl, www.start21art.hu or www.start21art.sk (according to the country in which the school is based),
1. 10. 2026 – 21. 11. 2026	juror registration via the online form at www.start21art.cz, www.start21art.pl, www.start21art.hu or www.start21art.sk (according to the country in which the school is based),
1. 12. 2026 – 12. 1. 2027	evaluation of the works by the jury,
21. 1. 2027	publication of the results of level I of the competition,
1. 2. 2027 – 21. 2. 2027	evaluation of the final works by the jury at www.start21art.eu,
23. 2. 2027	publication of the final results at www.start21art.eu,
26. 2. 2027 – 28. 2. 2027	Online Star voting,
1. 3. 2027 – 21. 3. 2027	auction of all competition works at www.kubikum.com,
by 24. 4. 2027	presentation of the prizes.

Instructions for the competing student:

• Selected students in the final year of schools with an artistic focus, nominated by the school they attend, may take part in the competition.
• The school assigns the student a generated code, through which the student registers for the competition via the online form on www.start21art.cz, www.start21art.pl, www.start21art.hu or www.start21art.sk (according to the country in which the school is based) no later than 21. 11. 2026. The nominated student must be of legal age at the time of registration for the competition.
• The student registers their competition work and uploads its digitised form to the designated area on www.start21art.cz, www.start21art.pl, www.start21art.hu or www.start21art.sk (according to the country in which the school is based) within the time set in the competition timetable – no later than 21. 11. 2026.
• The student, guided during the competition by a teacher from the sending school, states the name of this teacher – the supervisor – when registering the competition work.

• The work must meet the parameters set by the competition conditions:

  • The work must be created exclusively for this competition. Before the competition it must not have been exhibited anywhere or entered in another competition.
  • The theme for this year of the competition is: “Horizons”
  • The technique used is the author’s free choice.
  • Dimensions of the competition work: minimum 29.7 × 42 cm, maximum 100 × 100 cm.
  • The work must be signed by the author and marked on the back with a label describing the work (title, author, year, technique, theme, a short description).
  • If the work is a print or a photograph, the author must use the label to mark the first original author’s print of the graphic work or photograph.
  • The work must be photographed from the front and from the back, together with the label.
  • The jury will evaluate the work online on the basis of its digitised form. This must correspond to the real work and must meet the required parameters and quality: at least 3000 px and a resolution of at least 72 dpi, the maximum size of the file (the digitised form of the work) is 10 MB, and the permitted formats of the uploaded file are JPEG, SVG and PNG.
• After registering the competition work, the competing student asks the school to approve the registered work. The work is entered in the competition only after the school has approved it.
• After registering the work, the student concludes a licence agreement and a consignment-sale agreement by electronically completing and sending the forms that the website displays after registration. Failure to complete or send the licence agreement and the consignment-sale agreement to the organiser is a reason for excluding the work from the competition.

Final provisions:

By registering for the competition, participants agree to the conditions set out in the competition statute. The organiser reserves the right to adjust the rules and conditions of the competition. Any change to the statute will be made in the same way as the competition was announced. The statute, with the detailed conditions, and further information are at www.start21art.eu.