The Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU) is a public art university. Founded in 1799, it is the oldest art academy in the Czech Republic and one of the oldest in Central Europe.
We are a small institution with approximately 350 students enrolled in bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programmes. Education is offered in three practical fields – Fine Arts, Architecture, and Restoration of Artworks – while doctoral study is also available in Theory and History of Contemporary Art. With more than 70 academics across the school, teaching within Fine Arts is structured around intensive studio-basedmentorship. Students work closely with artists and professors such as Zbyněk Baladrán, Pavla Sceranková, and Pádraig Timoney, spanning studios in contemporary painting, sculpture, new media, intermedia, drawing, and printmaking.
We operate across seven premises in Prague, including six historic buildings in the Letná district and a villa in Vinohrady. The Academy is formally divided into three schools: the School of Restoration, led by Adam Pokorný; the School of Architecture, led by Miroslav Šik; and the School of Fine Arts, the largest of the three, organized on non-hierarchical principles. The Department of Theory and History of Art, chaired by Vít Havránek, offers a constantly evolving range of courses spanning current social issues and new perspectives on the art of earlier centuries. Students also benefit from a variety of technical facilities, including specialized workshops and laboratories.
Twice a year, students present their work in juried exhibitions – known as "klauzury" – held at the end of each semester, where a committee of internal and external experts reviews and discusses their progress. The academic year culminates each June in the Graduate Festival, when final-year students present their final projects to the public through the graduation exhibition.
We place a strong emphasis on international mobility and partnerships, actively participating in European and global research and artistic networks such as ELIA and SAR. We actively build long-term institutionalties abroad, including staff and student exchanges, joint research and exhibition projects, residencies and cooperation at the MA and PhD levels.
Alongside its Czech-taught programmes, AVU offers the English-taught master's programme Art in Context, which has featured instructors such as Jiří Kovanda and Luiza Prado. The Academy's Visiting Artist Studio, originally conceived by Anna Daučíková, has long supported cross-border exchange by inviting artists, curators and theorists into AVU's teaching environment, and has welcomed many distinguished guests to AVU over the years, among them Josef Dabernig, Magdalena Jetelová, Zbigniew Libera, Silke Otto-Knapp, Ruth Noack, Florian Pumhösl, Simon Starling, Nicole Wermers, and Artur Żmijewski.
Research at AVU is closely tied to its academic fields, combining hands-on, practice-based work with scholarly investigation and critical reflection.
This work is carried out through several platforms: the Art History Research Department (VVP), currently led by Pavlína Morganová; the Artistic Research Department LARGE, led by Irina Gheorghe; and the DoctoralResearch Department, headed by Markéta Dolejšová, who also coordinates AVU's research groups. Together, they support long-term projects, publications, conferences, public programmes and collaborations with Czech and international partners. Since 2022, LARGE has run an annual performative conference, creating a regular forum for international exchange in this field.
AVU Publishing House produces specialist titles, artists' books and monographs in the fields of contemporary art and art theory, and issues the peer-reviewed journal Notebook for Art, Theory and Related Zones. The Academy's exhibition activities are centred around Galerie AVU, located in a new multifunctional building.
In 2026, the Academy established an Endowment Fund with the aim of deepening its collaboration with the public and patrons, enabling it to directly support the work of young artists as well as academic inquiry. The Fund exists to support the artistic and educational life of the AVU community – from student projects and exhibitions to scholarly work – and to help spread the good name of art education more broadly.