On 31 May in Prague, during the inauguration of the Polish Presidency of the Visegrad Group, the International Visegrad Prize was awarded.
This is the most prestigious prize awarded throughout Central Europe, and it was established by the Ministers of Culture for Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary in 2004. The prize is awarded annually to individuals and institutions for their actions in the development of cultural cooperation within the Visegrad Group countries. This year's prize winner is the Villa Decius Association of Krakow, whose flagship programmes focus on the cooperation of V4. The most important among them is the Visegrad Summer School which has been in existence for 11 years enjoying unflagging popularity and respect, as an international platform for informal study and a place to create new macro-regional initiatives.
Annual creative scholarships, awarded since 1998, also provide significant contributions to the cultural development of the region. By 2011, the Association has hosted more than 130 writers, including Central European artists like: Michal Hvorecký, Jiri Hajicek, András Pályi, Barbora Gregorova, David Zábranský, and Jonas Hájek.
The Villa Decius itself is also a place of meetings, as well as political and social debate. Since 2006, the Association has been organising international conferences and seminars devoted to the idea of freedom, which are also an opportunity to meet intellectuals and politicians. Among the most prominent were, among others: Jiří Dienstbier, Jan Kavan, Jara David-Moserová, Petr Uhl, Martin Butora, Andrej Ban, František Ružička, Magdalena Vášáryová, László Rajk, Andras Lánczi, Géza Jeszenszky, Csaba Gy. Kiss, Danuta Hübner, Adam D.Rotfeld, Adam Michnik and Bogdan Borusewicz.
The Association also often plays the role of a strategic partner or initiator for projects such as: Visegrad Insight, Visegrad Visibility, Ethnicity in the City and, the latest initiative of the International Visegrad Fund, the Visegrad Literary Residency Program.
These programmes are related to the promotion of the Visegrad Group and are carried out with the help of outstanding partners from Bratislava ( Centrum Pre Výskum Etnicity a Kultúry), Budapest (Cracovia Expressz Alapítvány, Európai Kulturális Alapítvány), Prague (Asociace Pro Mezinárodní Otázky, Multikulturní Centrum Praha) and Kiev (Institute Euroregio Ukraine) and also supported by the International Visegrad Fund, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, diplomatic missions and consular posts, Polish and foreign institutions and local authorities.
These, as well as other activities make the Villa Decius Association a leader in the cooperation of the Visegrad Group. Through promoting V4 countries’ partnerships, which have implications that reach beyond the borders of Central Europe, the Association has become a promoter of culture for the whole region. The Prize, which confirms such an assumption, was received by the Director of the Association, Danuta Glondys, PhD.
