The year-long mentoring program jointly developed by the Hungarian, Polish and Slovak sections of AICA is a collaborative initiative aimed at supporting emerging critics at the beginning of their professional paths, and is planned to become an annual tradition among the respected regional AICA sections. In each participating section, a group of young art critics was selected through an open call and paired with experienced mentors—curators, editors, and academics—to work together on improving the participants’ writing skills. The program culminated in the publication of texts written by the emerging critics, developed over the course of their mentoring process, in 2025.
A key feature of the program is its emphasis on fostering international exchange and visibility. By publishing the texts translated into English and published online, helping to amplify regional perspectives within broader contemporary art discourse.
While the overarching structure and goals of the program were shared, each national section adapted the initiative to fit its own context and institutional relationships in order to create complementary models of support. In Poland, AICA collaborated closely with Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, and designed the program around collective workshops and peer exchange among participants. The emphasis was placed on developing a sense of community and shared learning among emerging critics, supported by feedback from multiple mentors. In Slovakia and Hungary, the program focused more strongly on individualized, one-to-one mentoring relationships, which allowed for in-depth, personalised guidance tailored to the participants’ specific needs and interests. In Poland, the resulting texts all deal with the same exhibition, Tears of Joy (Zachęta – National Gallery of Art 08.06 – 29.09.2024), whereas in the two other countries, each text is about a different show.
Throughout the program, special attention was given to its potential social and cultural impact. Rather than assuming a predefined outcome, the organisers were attentive to the ways in which partnerships with cultural institutions—such as Zachęta—and with independent art media could open new spaces for critical dialogue and public reflection. The initiative also responded to the need for sustainable structures supporting young voices in art criticism at a time when independent commentary (and, in Hungary’s case, the professional platforms such as reviews, magazines are gradually disappearing) is increasingly under pressure across the region.
This mentoring initiative extends and deepens the transnational collaboration previously established through the anthology Bridging the Gaps: An Anthology of Art Criticism in Central and Eastern Europe After 1989, edited byMałgorzata Kaźmierczak, published by AICA International in 2023. That project, initiated by the AICA sections of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, and supported by the Visegrad Fund, aimed to make local critical perspectives more accessible to international audiences, and highlighted the importance of translated, regionally grounded, and historically conscious criticism. It also laid the groundwork for our AICA sections to collaborate further. Building on this network, our mentorship project aims to provide a framework for mutual learning, solidarity, and cultural exchange across Central and Eastern Europe—at a time when such efforts are more essential than ever.
Organising Committee: Kata Balázs (AICA Hungary, president, project leader), Peter Megyeši (AICA Slovakia, president), Arkadiusz Półtorak (AICA Poland, president)
Authors and mentors:
Hungary
Authors and mentors: Gyöngyvirág Agócs – Vanda Sárai, Ferenc Domokos – Patrick Tayler, Sára Tomcsányi – Attila Horányi
Translator: Zsófia Rudnay
Coordination: Kata Balázs, Tamás Don
Poland
Authors: Lidia Tańska, Mariia Varlygina, Jakub Wydra
Mentors: Dorota Jarecka, Katarzyna Kołodziej-Podsiadło, Karolina Plinta
Translator: Arkadiusz Półtorak
Coordination: Arkadiusz Półtorak
Slovakia
Authors and mentors: Dominika Lazorová– Katarína Rusnáková, Martina Mrázová – Ján Kralovič, Izabela Vydrnáková – Jana Geržová
Translator: Kamila Talarovič
Coordination: Peter Megyeši
Kata Balázs is the President of AICA Hungary, Arkadiusz Półtorak is the President of AICA Poland.
