Ruse Art Gallery Secures Funding for the Contemporary Art Festival – Ruse 2026

Full support from the National Culture Fund for a festival exploring the theme “Space” on a new scale

Ruse Art Gallery has received funding from the National Culture Fund under the “Creation and Dissemination – Large Projects” 2025 program for the realization of the Contemporary Art Festival – Ruse 2026. The project will take place from 1 December 2025 to 31 August 2026, with a total budget of 68,018 BGN.

The festival is conceived as a major interdisciplinary initiative, turning Ruse into an open platform for the creation, presentation, and dissemination of new cultural forms. Under the theme “Space”, the 2026 edition will include exhibitions, new media, video art, site-specific interventions, performances, and the “Living Ideas” platform. In addition to Ruse, some activities will take place in Isperih, Popovo, and the villages of Nisovo and Pisanets, expanding the cultural and geographic scope of the project.

The National Culture Fund highlighted the sustainable nature of the initiative, aimed at fostering encounters between Bulgarian and international artists, cultural institutions, and audiences, as well as its contribution to developing new audiences and establishing Ruse as a cultural hub with European visibility. The project was recognized as well-structured, with a reasonable budget and a team with the necessary capacity, which led to its approval for full funding.

The Contemporary Art Festival – Ruse is scheduled to open during the Night of Museums and Galleries in May 2026, and the program will run for one month, filling the city and region with a wide range of events and artistic interventions.