Instructions for the school

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 school:

• Selected students in the final year of schools with an artistic focus may take part. A school may join the competition and nominate a contestant only if its artistic fields or programmes make up at least 50% of all fields or programmes it provides.
• The school registers on www.start21art.cz, www.start21art.pl, www.start21art.hu or www.start21art.sk (according to the country in which the school is based) via the online form within the set period (21. 9. 2026 – 30. 9. 2026), where it also states the number of students who may be nominated. It may nominate at most 10% of all its students in the final year. (One nominated contestant for every group of up to ten students.)
• After successful registration, the school profile shows the codes for the competing students and for the juror nominated by the school, needed for their registration in the competition.
• The school selects the students who will represent it and assigns them the generated codes. A nominated student must be of legal age at the time of registration for the competition.
• The school nominates one juror and assigns them the generated code. The code is activated only if at least one contestant is registered for the school.
• After the competition work is registered, the school electronically confirms that the work and its digitised form meet the competition conditions:
  • The work was 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 is 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 digitised form of the work corresponds to the real work.

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.