Part 1 of the Project Salt of the Land / 7 Masters of Palestinian Art (2106)

Part 2 of the Project: 7 Female Masters of Palestinian Art (2107)

Disconnect from your daily routine and come to create at the art residency on the edge of a natural reserve......

The International Art Colony at Csókakő in Hungary is a not-for-profit endavour to host visual artists from around the world wishing to work and relax in a most beutiful natural setting in the heart of Europe.

The Colony offers visual artists ideal circumstances for fostering their creativity, and thus visiting artists get the chance to disconnect from their daily routines, and to connect instead with colleagues from other countries, thereby stimulating personal vision and encouraging new and exciting artistic expressions in a relaxed atmosphere . The village offers many open air creativity locations, where artist's may create outdoors, such as around the historical castle, and other locations

Besides quality private accomodation and fine dining from the locally produced goodies, artist's have well equipped studios at their disposal, in which they may engage in various creative activities.

Additionally, fully equipped ceramics workshops (and special ovens for burning) are also available, thus artist's wishing to experiment in cermaics are also welcome, as local experienced cermaics artists are available for instruction and guidance. 

The Colony also offers a unique library holding more than 1000 e-books on the history of art woldwide, a helpful tool for research, learning and inspiration.

Visual artists interested in visitng may do so by one of the following ways:

1. Art residency for 1-3 months during any time of the year

(except from 1st of June to 15th of September & 15th of December to 15th of January.)

The Colony does not cuurently offer any scholarships for this type of art residency, therefore this art residency is fully self-financed by the artist. However, visiting artists have no obligations towards the Colony with this type of residency.

Please contact us for further details on this type of art residency.

Csókakő Art Summer initiative

2. Summer Art Residency:

The International Art Colony organizes the Csókakő Art Summer initiative, a yearly gathering of visual artists from around the world for dialogue & creativity in the village of Csókakő, for a period of up to 3 weeks during the month of July.

The summer art session includes various creative as well as recreational activities.  Each session ends with an exhibition of the works of art produced during the session.

The Colony offers a limited number of scholarships for selected artists to participate in this unique event.

Please watch for our announcements.

Location: On the edge of the nature reserve

Csókakő  is located in west Hungary, 70 kilometers from Budapest, capital of Hungary, and about 180 km from Vienna, the capital of Austria.

It is located 20 km from the highway that connects the beaches of the Mediterranean Sea with Budapest, and 60 km from the highway that connects Vienna, Prague and Berlin with Budapest.

While in residence, artists have a wide variety of attractions around Csókakő, worthy of visiting. In less than an hour, artists can switch the beuty of the wildreness with vibrant hisotrical cities, full of cultural programs & art attarctions.

Budapest & Vienna offer a multitude of sightseeing treasures, historical sights, beutiful architecture and, of course, last but not least, the river Danube.

Inspiring &  Vibrant & Full with Art Treasures

Full of museums with unique historcial and contemporary art collections, and loaded with various first-rate art galleries, the creative vibrations of these 2 cities are well worthy of discovering and experiencing for any artist in residence, and they can easily be visited from Csókakő for one day trips.  Many of the best sights lie within an easy walk of the inner city centers, that also offers excellent shopping, dining, and entertainment opportunities to round off a day of museum and gallery hopping.

Must see is Vienna's Museum of Art History, The Albertina and the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere. In Budapest, highly recommended are the Hungarian National Gallery, the Kunsthalle, Ludwig Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts.

Additionally, the world class Spa thermal baths of Budapest are recreational miracles indeed.

Lake Balaton:

central Europe's largest fresh water lake is only 50 km away !

Hungary's Most popular summer resort is only 50 km away from Csókakő.

Resorts close to Csókakő are on the northern shore of the lake, and include (From east to west:)

Balatonfőkajár - Balatonakarattya - Balatonkenese - Balatonfűzfő - Balatonalmádi - Alsóörs - Paloznak - Csopak - Balatonarács - Balatonfüred - Tihany

Lake Venice:

Lake Venice is about 20 km away from Csókakő. This lake is much smaller than lake Balaton, and also less touristic. However, it drives its charm from its calmness. Famous for the thermal baths at Agárd, a must visit for any artist in residence.

A thermal bath is a warm body of water. It is often referred to as a spa, which is traditionally used to mean a place where the water is believed to have special health-giving properties

 Károlyi Palace

Galya valley  natural reserve

endless fields, hills and mountains of the Bakony and the Vértes

Grapes of the famous Mor wine producing area

The Castle of Csókakő

Historical city of Veszprém

text & all photography by Amir A. Abdi. Copyright Amir A. Abdi 2015. All rights reserved

Cover painting by Abed Abdi. Copyright Abed Abdi 2014.

Published by InterKulti Association for the Advancement of Inter-Cultural Dialogue

2015