Jana Kuffová Popovicsová

Program Director of Hidepark Nitra, Community Activist, and Cultural Manager
Residency period: October 2024
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Jana Kuffová Popovicsová is a cultural manager, dramaturge, and community activist based in Nitra, Slovakia. She currently works at the Slovak University of Agriculture as a community activator within the European project IN-HABIT (Horizon 2020). At the same time, she serves as the Program Director of the independent cultural and community center Hidepark Nitra.

She has long been active in the fields of independent culture, civic participation, and international cooperation. Her experience includes working on various European cultural projects, such as Nitra’s bid for the title of European Capital of Culture 2026 and as a fundraiser and partnership coordinator for the Creative Center Nitra. She is also a member of Anténa – Network for Independent Culture, through which she has followed the activities of Malý Berlín for many years. When she came across the opportunity to apply for a residency in New York in collaboration with Residency Unlimited, she decided to give it a try – and it worked out.

Residency objective:
The four-week residency at Residency Unlimited in New York (which Jana extended to five weeks) was an intense professional and personal experience. The organizers arranged a program consisting of 14 individual one-hour meetings with artists from around the world, who were also in residence at RU at the time. These conversations opened up space for reflection, experience-sharing, and discussions about potential collaborations. In addition, she regularly participated in workshops, group gallery and museum visits, and actively contributed to the production of exhibitions by other residents across New York.

In her free time, she visited a wide range of public and private galleries and museums and systematically explored artistic interventions in public space. She was fascinated by the contrast between the familiar and the new:
“Without the weight of my own work, I could perceive a completely different approach to art and culture – the way institutions and individuals operate.”

During the residency, she established several new connections and partnerships. The most intensive collaboration developed with Portuguese artist Beatriz Manteigas and the residency center Quinta das Relvas, which she recently visited. Together, they submitted a joint project under the Creative Europe program. Jana also remains in contact with the Residency Unlimited team, which continues to connect its alumni with opportunities around the world even after the residency ends.

Her stay in New York allowed her to reflect on her own work from a new perspective and gain fresh inspiration for her future efforts in cultural management, international partnerships, and community development. As she puts it:
“Being immersed in a completely different cultural environment and discussing your work with people who hold up a different mirror was truly refreshing and inspiring.”