In the second half of the 20th century, the Slovenian cultural scene saw a significant increase in exhibition activities focused on modern and contemporary visual arts, bringing together a wide range of professional institutional programmes, local and individual initiatives, associations, museum departments, newly established exhibition centres and galleries, workers' and cultural centres, and other temporary exhibition venues. The online tool Art Exhibition Venues in Slovenia 1947–1979: Interactive Map is an attempt at a systematic presentation of this extensive exhibition infrastructure, offering users a geographical, chronological and, to some extent, thematic overview of the exhibition venues that significantly shaped the Slovenian art scene during this period. This introduction outlines the methodology behind the data collection, processing and interpretation, and briefly describes the development of the exhibition network and other key phenomena that influenced exhibiting practices and cultural institutions during the period under review.
The main source for identifying and displaying the exhibition venues that have been given their "individual identities" on the interactive map is the Inventory of Exhibition Venues in Slovenia from the Documentation Archives of the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana. In 1974, the Museum's curators Ljerka Menaše and Eva Gspan conducted a questionnaire survey, titled Report on Visual Art Activities, which was sent to exhibition venues identified during their work at the Documentation Section of the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, which was established in 1971 specifically to monitor the expanding exhibiting activities in Slovenia. However, the survey was not conducted solely for the sake of transparency or the regular recording of exhibitions, which was among the tasks of the Museum's new Documentation Section, but also to coordinate the activities of Slovenian exhibition venues. Meanwhile, a special commission of the Visual Arts Section of the Museums and Galleries Association of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia gathered representatives from gallery and exhibition venues to coordinate their activities and prepare a classification of galleries and exhibition spaces.1
The Inventory of Exhibition Venues in Slovenia, organised by locations, includes the questionnaires that the respondents, who sometimes also provided additional materials such as invitations, posters or plans for exhibition spaces, completed during 1974–1975. The same folders also contain the minutes and photographs from the curators' and a photographer's first-hand visits to the exhibition venues between 1974 and 1976. The 1983 article by one of the census takers, Eva Gspan, titled "Outline of the State of Slovenian Galleries and Exhibition Venues", along with the reports on the work of the Documentation Section for 1974 and 1975, indicates that questionnaires were sent to 104 institutions in 1974. During the first call, 65 completed forms were received.2
Most of the exhibition venues from the inventory have also been included in this current selection of exhibition spaces. However, the main criterion for inclusion on the interactive map was evidence of a stable, organised exhibiting activity. This means that the exhibition venue had a founder, a regular programme and a programme council or a person responsible for the exhibition policy. Sometimes, the exhibition venues included do not fully meet all these criteria. However, we can reasonably infer an activity that left a clear mark on their surroundings and was not only sporadic. During the research, we also included smaller exhibition initiatives, as they often had a significant impact on their local communities, especially those located far from major urban cultural centres.
The materials from the Inventory of Exhibition Venues in Slovenia, used during the initial research phase, are not specifically cited.3 All other information, obtained from other sources, is detailed in the footnotes.
During the second phase of the project, we referred to annual exhibition questionnaires and other materials from the same Documentation Archives, the aforementioned article by Eva Gspan, various chronologies of artistic and architectural developments4 and, of course, exhibition catalogues and other related materials. Alongside the general media, the collection of specialised journals, serving as a crucial source of information, includes Likovna revija, Zbornik za umetnostno zgodovino and especially Sinteza, which regularly provided lists of ongoing exhibitions and annual overviews, for example in the form of regional chronicles. The largest Slovenian exhibition database, Raz_ume, has been very helpful – although only as a supplementary source, since its entries are not systematic before 1989. The extensive range of literature used is evident from the citations in the footnotes and the bibliographies for each location, which show that reviews of the activities of exhibition venues and societies, museum newsletters and articles in local journals, various local newspapers, magazines, gazettes, etc., have also served as valuable sources of information.5 In this respect, it has become clear that the availability of information about cultural events varies greatly from one location to another, often depending on the dedication and precision of individual chroniclers or institutions.
The third and final phase involved conducting field research and interviews with the professionals involved – current or former employees or collaborators of the relevant institutions, as well as researchers and experts on local cultural history. With their help, we were able to clarify numerous gaps in knowledge and confirm certain details that were incomplete or unclear in existing sources. The list of respondents is included in the Acknowledgements at the end of this text.
The database is organised geographically and chronologically. The entries on art exhibiting are linked to individual locations, thus also providing local overviews of the development of exhibition venues and activities. The overview of chronological developments is facilitated by the time-filtering feature, which allows users to review events related to art exhibitions within a specified year or period. The citations in the location entries do not necessarily refer to specific exhibition venues but merely confirm the stated information. The essential literature on exhibiting activities is listed in the Key Literature tab next to each location entry. Where photographic materials were added to the Inventory of Exhibition Venues in Slovenia in the Museum's archive, we have typically also included a selection of photos to accompany the location entries in the Photo Archive tab. To prevent inaccuracies, the captions for the photographs have been quoted, with occasional minor modifications, from the notes accompanying the photographic materials in the Inventory of Exhibition Venues in Slovenia. In the latter, the accuracy of the recorded data varies across different locations.
Our goal was not to detail the entire history of Slovenia's art exhibiting infrastructure but to present a reliable overview of exhibition venues and activities. As an online resource, this overview will be useful for further analysis of the sector and the circumstances of its development. Therefore, the project focuses on data that can be identified and verified using the methods and sources mentioned above.6 In describing the exhibition venues, we have, as far as possible, endeavoured to clarify the following:
why were particular exhibition venues created;
who established, managed and financed them;
when and under what conditions;
how and where their premises were acquired, and what types of renovations they underwent;
what was their exhibition, collection or programme focus;
what was the role of local, regional and state actors in their establishment and operation.
Due to the diverse range of initiatives and initiators – from museums to cultural communities, from artists' associations to companies, hotels and individuals – the project illustrates a multi-layered view of exhibiting dynamics during the post-war period. However, we should add that the art exhibiting activities during the period under review were notably more extensive, as our project – with rare exceptions – does not include one-off events or temporary venues where art exhibitions were held only occasionally, usually by external organisers. These are often institutions that have been, or still are, involved in exhibiting or cultural activities, for example, in Ljubljana: the Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre, the National and University Library of Slovenia, the Cultural Workers Club and the French Cultural Centre. It also seems that other public institutions, especially educational ones – for example, again in Ljubljana, the Kette and Murn Primary School, the lobby of the Angela Ocepkova Educational and Daycare Institution in Zelena jama and the Polje Hospital for Mental Illness – were very open to temporary art exhibitions.7 We have not included interesting actions such as exhibitions in factories because they, as one-off projects, do not meet our selection criteria. However, these events are often mentioned in the context of the institutions that organised them.8 The same applies to short-term actions, such as Marko Pogačnik's Sintgalerija.9
The period under review is especially notable because Slovenian art exhibiting saw the fastest growth in its history during that time. From a truly modest pre-war situation – for instance, during the interwar period, regular exhibitions in Ljubljana were held only at the Jakopič Pavilion and the National Gallery – a diverse, polycentric and largely professionalised network of exhibition venues, with many specialised institutions and well-developed inter-institutional links within Slovenia and abroad, developed in just a few decades. In the article mentioned above, Eva Gspan writes: "In 1971, we had 81 galleries and exhibition venues; by 1976, this number increased to 133; and in 1983, there were already 185."10 These three decades involved not only rapid institutional changes but also saw the development of new cultural activities that significantly influenced the geography, social structure and modes of artistic production.
In the early post-war years, exhibition activities relied directly on the existing museum infrastructure. However, in 1947, the establishment of the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, as a national institution for 20th-century art responsible for developing the core art collection of this period in Slovenia, among other duties, clearly represented a significant innovation.11 The Museum of Modern Art had a significant impact on the professionalisation of the entire field, and its presence established a frame of reference within which regional exhibition venues developed, programmes evolved and exhibition criteria solidified. The research has shown that its employees also assisted in the establishment of other institutions and the organisation of their first exhibitions, or that new venues were initially even created as branches of the Museum of Modern Art – for example, the now-defunct Vila Bled Exhibition Venue, or, in 1962, the Piran Gallery (now the Piran Civic Gallery). At the same time, despite limited space and resources, provincial and municipal museums played a significant role in showcasing contemporary art. In some locations, visual art activities were incorporated into permanent installations, while elsewhere they took place in temporary halls, school facilities and multi-purpose cultural centres, demonstrating that exhibitions were part of the wider cultural scene even before professionalisation. This was typical of exhibitions at the Posavje Museum Brežice, for instance, or during the early days of the Škofja Loka Museum, which initially held art exhibitions elsewhere and only later obtained dedicated gallery facilities.
Simultaneously, the growth of the exhibiting network relied heavily on local and personal initiatives. In many instances, exhibiting activities were sustained by the perseverance of societies or even individuals, who often worked well beyond their formal capacities. Their efforts allowed exhibiting activities to expand into regions where the art life, at the time, often relied mainly on their contributions for many years or even decades. For example, in Jesenice, the Svoboda Workers' Educational Society, through the Dolik group and collaborations with local industrial partners, established one of the most vibrant art centres mainly focused on amateur art; while in the nearby town of Bled, an outstanding exhibition programme was organised by Janez Ravnik, a painter and art teacher at the Bled Primary School. Similar initiatives took place in Kočevje, Slovenj Gradec, Kostanjevica na Krki and Lendava, where local art educators, curators, artists or mere enthusiasts played vital roles in developing exhibitions, exhibition venues and art collections.
Among the professional associations, the Society of Slovenian Visual Artists (later known as the Slovenian Fine Arts Society and now the Slovenian Association of Fine Arts Societies) was essential. Soon after the war, it sought to display its members' works at exhibitions at the Ljubljana Artists' Cooperative and elsewhere.12 Later, some of the Society's subcommittees became highly proficient at organising exhibitions in their respective regions. These bodies were set up in various regional centres and played a crucial organisational and networking role: they worked with municipalities, cultural centres, museums or individuals to establish the initial, more permanent programme frameworks for artistic activities. Additionally, they frequently set up new exhibition venues (e.g. in Celje, Koper or Maribor), which later developed into more stable institutional galleries.
The phenomena that endowed exhibitions with a distinctly connective character and often a supra-regional or even international significance merit a dedicated chapter in the history of exhibition venues.13 Art colonies, such as those in Idrija and Lendava, often led to the creation of new artworks that became the foundation of local exhibition venues and gave them a long-term focus. The Forma Viva sculpture symposium is a particularly notable example: in Kostanjevica na Krki and Seča near Portorož, and later also in Ravne na Koroškem and Maribor, it resulted in the creation of permanent public collections of monumental works and fostered new forms of international cooperation. Major periodic exhibitions, such as triennials and biennials – not only the most renowned ones today, like the Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts or the exhibitions on world peace in Slovenj Gradec – also played a vital role. For example, the Triennial of Yugoslav Photography in Ajdovščina or the Graphic Biennial of Yugoslav Pioneers in Kostanjevica na Krki were not only notable periodic art events of their time: they also functioned as regional promotion and integration mechanisms that positioned local exhibition venues within the broader Yugoslav context.
During the late 1960s and especially the 1970s, there was a notable move towards the professionalisation and gradual specialisation of exhibition venues.14 For example, the first dedicated spaces for photography appeared (the Cabinet of Slovenian Photography in Kranj, the Koper Photo Gallery in Koper, and the Focus Photo Gallery in Ljubljana), which signified both the popularity and institutional recognition of photography as an independent medium. Various companies (Iskra, Gorenjska oblačila, Meblo, Mehanotehnika, Ljubljanska banka, Lek, Krka and others) initiated their own exhibitions or developed exhibition venues, reflecting broader cultural policy directions and efforts to integrate art into everyday work environments. Similarly, galleries emerged in tourist and health resort settings that mainly combined cultural and commercial aspects, such as in Bled, Portorož or Radenci. Contrary to the "traditional narrative" of the weakness of the socialist art market, the lively art marketing and sales gallery activities are surprising.15
This gradually resulted in a heterogeneous, dispersed exhibition system open to various programme orientations. The geographical distribution of exhibition venues indicates a complex interaction between urban centres, industrial towns and smaller local environments, with the latter often boasting a surprisingly vibrant exhibition scene. As we strive to understand the development of the entire exhibition infrastructure, it becomes clear that exhibition venues were not designed according to a single model but rather through a complex interplay of cultural and political foundations, bureaucratic decisions, local initiatives and identities, various artistic and organisational influences, as well as spatial and financial capacities. Museums maintained a vital role in this context, often assuming the responsibilities of regional galleries due to reliable funding and professional staff. Workers' and cultural centres served as focal points of social life, so exhibitions held at these venues were more than just artistic displays; they were integral to wider cultural engagement. Educational institutions – especially primary and secondary schools and workers' universities – frequently offered their premises for amateur and pedagogical exhibitions while also involving the younger generations in artistic activities.16
The development of the exhibition infrastructure extended beyond the art world, it was connected to modernisation processes that transformed Slovenian society: from urbanisation and industrialisation to the professionalisation of cultural work and the integration of art into various segments of public space. The online tool is the first comprehensive attempt to map this complex system. It allows users to explore the spatial and temporal dynamics of exhibiting practices while illustrating how various forms of exhibiting – whether institutional, local, amateur or professional – operated together to create a rich cultural space that, in many ways, surpasses the current situation. The tool offers a foundation for further research, reinterpretations and conversations, while also demonstrating that the history of art exhibiting is more than just a chronological list of events: it is a network of spaces, people, institutions and practices that collectively shape the identity of art in a specific time and place.
Assistance in gathering and verifying the relevant information was provided by: Tamara Andrejek, Maja Antončič, Aleksander Bassin, Dubravko Baumgartner, Lea Belec, Jerneja Berginc, Luka Bevk, Barbara Borčić, Andreja Borin, Majda Božeglav Japelj, Andreja Brancelj Bednaršek, Marjeta Ciglenečki, Klaudija Cigole, Anabel Černohorski, Daša Čopi, Katarina Dajčman, Nastja Dejak, Alenka Domjan, Janez Fajfar, Lea Ferjan, Erna Ferjanič, Jerneja Ferlež, Stanka Gačnik, Damir Globočnik, Ida Gnilšak, Marina Gradišnik, Alenka Grgić Obersnel, Seida Hajdarević, Katarina Hergold Germ, Katarina Hergouth, Sonja Ana Hoyer, Breda Ilich Klančnik, Matej Imperl, Robert Inhof, Gregor Jerman, Tine Kaluža, Breda Kolar Sluga, Meta Kordiš, Milena Koren Božiček, Tadej Koren, Marko Košan, Brigita Košar, Nadja Kovačič, Vera Kovačević, Lev Kreft, Kaja Lukač, Marjeta Marinčič, Teja Merhar, Goran Milovanović, Nelida Nemec, Ana Obid, Karla Oder, Metoda Uršič, Lidija Pavlovčič, Mitja Pelko, Jelka Pirkovič, Špela Poles, Nani Poljanec, Tina Ponebšek, Katja Praprotnik, Iztok Premrov, Slavko Pregl, Helena Rožman, Boštjan Soklič, Vlado Stijepić, Žan Škrjanec, Jadranka Šumi, Jan Štrukelj, Marija Terpin Mlinar, Zora Torkar, Andrejka Vabič Nose, Miha Zadnikar, Cveta Zalokar, Nada Zoran, Gojko Zupan, Janja Železnikar, and Salvator Žitko. We are very grateful for everyone's kind and sometimes long-term cooperation!
We sincerely thank the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Kranj City Library for allowing us to include hyperlinks to the biographies published on the web portals Slovenian Biography and Faces of Slovenian Regions.
All photographic materials published in the interactive map's Photo Archive tabs are part of the Inventory of Exhibition Venues in Slovenia, maintained in the documentation archives of the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana. We would like to thank the Museum of Modern Art for its cooperation and permission to use the images.
Visitors to the website are welcome to send any corrections, comments or additional information to info@razstavljanjevsloveniji.si.
1 Eva Gspan, "Oris stanja slovenskih galerij in razstavišč", Argo, vol. 22, 1983, p. 47. The article mentions that the project was also funded by the Cultural Community of Slovenia.
2 "Poročilo o delu Oddelka za dokumentacijo MG 1974" and "Poročilo o delu Oddelka za dokumentacijo MG 1975", Dokumentacija-arhiv Moderne galerije v Ljubljani. Gspan, 1983 (see footnote 1), p. 47. Please note that the inventories and reflections presented in the article do not fully match our entries, as the article was written nearly ten years after the start of the census campaign in 1983 and covered many more locations than our survey due to the rapid expansion of exhibition venues at the time.
3 The source is only cited a few times, mainly when there are obvious discrepancies in data or claims from other sources. See, for example, the entry about Kranj.
4 See, for example, the detailed timeline: "1945–1978 Kronologija", in: Stane Bernik et al. (eds.), Slovenska likovna umetnost 1945–1978 (exhibition catalogue), Moderna galerija in Arhitekturni muzej, Ljubljana, 1979, pp. 259–284.
5 Because of the significant number of art exhibition activities organised by various companies, including those held at their premises, since the late 1960s and particularly from the mid-1970s onwards, company publications serve as an important resource for tracing and understanding this phenomenon. For further information about this, see Boris Koroman, "Radnički tisak i problemi koncepta samoupravljanja u kulturi u Hrvatskoj 70-ih i 80-ih godina 20. st.", Acta Histriae, vol. 24, no. 3, 2016, pp. 615–642.
6 Some information, particularly terminology – for example, the Slovenian terms "ravnatelj" (head, director, manager) and "komisar" (commissioner) found in the Slovenian versions of the entries – has been retained in the original form, as a more detailed historical analysis of these terms is beyond the scope of this tool. Another common problem was defining the start of stable exhibiting activity, as the shift from sporadic to more permanent activity is often not clearly defined, and it can be challenging to find enough information, which can sometimes also be contradictory.
7 The listed institutions are those that frequently appear as venues for art exhibitions in the chronological reviews in the magazine Sinteza during the period under review.
8 An example of such a significant campaign for art exhibitions is the People, Work, Culture campaign, whose main aim was to make culture more accessible to the working class. See: Franček Brglez (ed.), Človek, delo, kultura: Ocene, analize, razmišljanja in zapiski, Komunist, Ljubljana, 1977. See also footnote 5.
9 Marko Pogačnik, "Predlog", Tribuna, vol. 15, 22 December 1965, p. 4; "Kronologija", in: OHO: Retrospektiva/Eine Retrospektive/A Retrospective (exhibition catalogue), Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, 1994, p. 139.
10 Gspan, 1983 (see footnote 1), p. 48.
11 Ibid., p. 48.
12 The chronological overview of the exhibition catalogue Slovenska likovna umetnost 1945–1978 (Slovenian Fine Arts 1945–1978) states the following for the year 1946: "From 1 May to mid-June, the Society of Slovenian Visual Artists organises twenty travelling exhibitions with 243 works in the Slovenian industrial centres and in Zone B of the Slovenian Littoral." "1945–1978 Kronologija", 1979 (see footnote 4), p. 261.
13 Contrary to the myths about the isolation of socialist Yugoslavia's fine art scene or its significant ties with the East, our research confirms strong, frequent and long-standing links with the West and minimal connections with the East. This situation is clear from both the interactive map under discussion and other targeted studies carried out as part of this research project. See Beti Žerovc, Miha Valant and Vladimir Vidmar (eds.), Želje in protislovja: Likovno in arhitekturno razstavljanje v Sloveniji 1947–1979, Društvo Igor Zabel za kulturo in teorijo and Filozofska fakulteta, Ljubljana, 2026, see especially the chapters by Gregor Dražil (pp. 176–203), Katarina Mohar (pp. 28–65) and Vladimir Vidmar (pp. 132–174); Rea Zupin, "Izmenjava likovnih razstav med Avstrijo in Slovenijo 1945–1990: Delovno gradivo", Razstavljanje v Sloveniji 1947–1979, razstavljanjevsloveniji.si, 2025, URL: https://razstavljanjevsloveniji.si (accessed 1.2.2026).
14 The expansion of exhibition venues in the 1970s is also evident from Gspan, 1983 (see footnote 1), pp. 47–66.
15 For further information about this, see Eva Jamnik, "Prodajne galerije v Sloveniji 1947–1979: Delovno gradivo", Razstavljanje v Sloveniji 1947–1979, razstavljanjevsloveniji.si, 2025, URL: https://razstavljanjevsloveniji.si (accessed 1.2.2026).
16 Over the years, a growing divide emerged between "high art" – a highly active and hierarchically organised art scene mainly composed of trained professionals, art historians and artists, predominantly linked to urban environments and the most professionalised institutions – and other forms of artistic creativity, strongly supported by the state in line with the socialist doctrine. Due to its specific nature, the online tool hardly detects this phenomenon. For further information about this, see Beti Žerovc, "O željah, protislovjih in razstavljanju umetnosti – Uvod", in: Beti Žerovc, Miha Valant and Vladimir Vidmar (eds.), Želje in protislovja: Likovno in arhitekturno razstavljanje v Sloveniji 1947–1979, Društvo Igor Zabel za kulturo in teorijo in Filozofska fakulteta, Ljubljana, 2026, pp. 11–17.