Artivism:
Culture
Artivism
Our goal is to create space for Roma authors and artists, and through art to break down stereotypes. We believe that art has the power to connect people and to convey emotions and experiences. At ARA ART, we have long been dedicated to developing Roma culture – from theatre and visual arts to music festivals, as well as commemorating important days of the Roma nation.
Our Activities
Important Days of the Roma Nation
Theatre
Gallery
+ rental of display panels
ARA FEST
a multi-genre festival in Pilsen and Ostrava
Important Days of the Roma Nation
Every year, we commemorate and celebrate important days from the history of the Roma nation that have been crucial for its culture and self-emancipation.
Theatre
The Ara Art Theatre Group is the only professional Roma theatre in the Czech Republic. We regularly create new theatre projects. From the very beginning, the theatre group has aimed to use the potential of original theatre production both to highlight Roma actors and to present current and pressing issues related to Roma communities – topics that are almost absent from the artistic space.
Current repertoire
Three Romani fairy tales, two actors, one story—the Ara Art theatre group invites audiences on a playful and surprising journey into the world of storytelling.
This original production by the ARA ART theatre group is a powerful monodrama that explores the stories of Romani women against the backdrop of key 20th-century moments.
Archive of theatre plays
Souls that have sunk to the bottom of possible troubles, unfortunates lost in the deepest limbo, where no one looks after them anymore… Wretched or wretches? Poor fellows or rascals? Les Misérables!
Think you have no prejudices? Think you don’t see in black and white? Then embark on a Czech-Romani stand-up expedition under your own grey cortex! To the earlier evolutionary domains of the reptilian and mammalian brain, which are all about one thing: survival.
ARA ART theatre group performance using texts by Gejza Demeter, Zora Horváthová, Ilona Ferková, Emil Cina, and other Romani authors.
It is Roma interactive musical fairy tale based on a text by Milena Hübschmannová. Be a part of the fairy tale, and solve with us what the bird tries to tell us.
Throughout several seasons this play proved to be a valuable tool for activating the Roma minority not only in excluded localities.
Theatre of the Oppressed
ARA ART has been working with the Theatre of the Oppressed method in cooperation with Theatre Two Times Three for several years. Each performance is always unique in its theme and the group of people who work on it.
ARA FEST
We organize a multi-day summer festival called ARA FEST every year. The festival was founded in Pilsen in 2017 as a response to the long-term absence of Roma culture in the public space of the city, even though many people of Roma origin live there. ARA FEST creates a space for meeting, sharing, and exploring contemporary Roma culture in its diversity in different Czech cities. It offers visitors a varied program that connects tradition with the present and gives voice to different forms of artistic expression.
Gallery Phundrado Vudar
The gallery project called Phundrado Vudar – Open Doors was launched in 2016. During its first two years, the gallery was part of the Souterrain evening café in Vinohrady, where a total of 12 exhibitions took place. Since 2018, the gallery has moved outdoors and has become a travelling gallery, presented on outdoor panels located in various places in Prague and other cities across the Czech Republic.
Loan of exhibition panels
You can also rent outdoor panels from us for your own use.
We have 8 display panels measuring 150×100 cm available, with the option to add a fold-out information panel. The panels are weighted down with concrete blocks and can be placed anywhere outdoors; they are weather-resistant.
