Why MenART?
MenART is a year-long scholarship program designed for students gifted in artistic fields and their teachers. It allows them to work closely with mentors – leading personalities of the Czech artistic scene – throughout an entire school year. MenART operates in music (classical section and a section without genre limitations), visual arts, literary-dramatic arts, and dance. We support art schools (ZUŠ), our unique and excellent system of arts education.
MenART was created to help students passionate about the arts who want to explore their field more deeply, or who are considering pursuing it professionally, as well as to support their teachers on this shared journey.
MenART offers student–teacher tandems a unique opportunity to work for a year within a group of motivated and talented students from all over the Czech Republic alongside top professionals, gaining new experience and inspiration. For teachers, MenART is a valuable platform for sharing best practices and deepening their skills in working with gifted students.
Who Can Apply?
Applications are open to students of elementary art schools (ZUŠ), lower- and upper-secondary school students, grammar school students, all applying together as a tandem with their teachers.
Beyond the scholarship, participation of teachers in the program can be supported through DVPP templates: Accommodation and meal costs during the three-day opening seminar may be covered through a participation fee.
Application
Applications for the 8th year of the MenART Academy open in January 2025.
Application requirements for each mentor’s future group of scholarship holders are specified individually in their profile.
Applications must be submitted by 31 March 2025 via the online form with all required attachments labeled with the student’s name. The order in which applications are submitted has no impact on the result. Mentors personally select their groups exclusively based on the submitted applications.
Results for the 8th year will be announced on 7 May 2025.
Mentors 2025/26
You can find the names of mentors and the conditions for joining their groups here.
We warmly recommend interviews with our mentors, where in the first set of interviews questions were answered by horn player and conductor Radek Baborák, violinist Jan Fišer, composer and pianist Beata Hlavenková, cellist Tomáš Jamník and accordionist Jakub Jedlinský. In the second round, pianists Ivo Kahánek and Karel Košárek, flutist Jan Ostrý and clarinetist Irvin Venyš answered questions.
1st part of interviews with our mentors here.
2nd part of interviews with our mentors here.
Required Application Documents
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Student’s motivation letter – this is not a CV; we are interested in their personal perspective, what the field means to them, their journey, interests, and expectations in applying to the program.
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Work samples – if applying to the visual arts field, please upload 5 samples in jpg format (max 5 MB). For other fields, please provide video recordings according to the mentors’ specifications (a mobile phone recording is perfectly sufficient) via a YouTube link (public or unlisted as you prefer). Label all attachments with the student’s name.
Instructions for uploading videos here. -
Teacher’s recommendation letter – the teacher’s perspective on the student, their approach, motivation, and relationship to the field.
- Optional: School principal’s approval
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For groups or ensembles – please include a shared message/motto from the ensemble members and a summarizing statement from the teacher about the ensemble’s work + samples of completed or in-progress work (this may be a work-in-progress from a rehearsal, not a full performance) up to 5 minutes long.
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Important: Labeling all attachments
All attachments must ALWAYS BE LABELED WITH THE STUDENT’S NAME, as in the examples below:
BLAŽKOVÁ_motivation letter
BLAŽKOVÁ_teacher letter
BLAŽKOVÁ_sample 1_nameofsample
BLAŽKOVÁ_sample 2_nameofsample
After submitting the completed online application, you will receive an automatic confirmation of receipt.
Meeting Dates
The MenART Academy year runs for 10 months of a standard school year – from late August to May.
The first working meetings of groups usually take place on the last weekend of August before the official start of the ZŠ and ZUŠ school year and last 3 days.
The schedule of further meetings during the school year (4–6 meetings depending on the mentor) is published together with the opening of applications.
The shared annual journey concludes in May and June with final presentations – concerts, performances, and a joint exhibition.
Tuition = Scholarship
The MenART Academy is a non-profit educational organization whose mission is to identify and support talent in its key early development stage. The Academy is open to students and teachers of artistic disciplines from all over the Czech Republic.
Accepted students and teachers receive a scholarship from MenART Academy covering the tuition – the mentors’ instruction within the Academy – in full, at 30,000 CZK per person per year. After completing the program, scholarship holders receive a certificate.
Students and teachers sign an entry scholarship agreement committing to complete the program responsibly and with full dedication over the entire year.
The scholarship does not cover travel costs, which teachers may request reimbursement for from the ZUŠ leadership within DVPP. ZUŠ management may independently support their teachers through templates depending on program requirements beyond the usual teaching workload.
If this option cannot be used and the financial costs associated with participation would prevent active involvement, we are prepared to address these situations individually. We thank the Albatros Foundation for supporting the program beyond the scholarship.
Questions
Do not hesitate to contact the coordinators of the individual sections if you have any questions.