A Vibrant Program at Center Rog in 2026

Call for Program Partners for the 2026/2027 Season (12 February – 13 March 2026)

As much as 30% of Center Rog’s annual program is implemented by partner organizations. Last year, we delivered 50 different programs this way. With this new call, we are again seeking content for the educational segment of workshops, courses, and clubs in our production labs for the 2026/2027 season.

Special attention will be given to masterclasses and courses that enable the professional development of expert users. Last year, we ran several advanced courses that attracted participants from neighboring countries.

Within the framework of professional and showcase events, we will again support presentations, lectures, professional meetings, and roundtables. Partners can also propose programs linked to special topics or milestones, such as International Migrants Day or Earth Day.

A unique aspect of our call for partners is that it is not necessary to apply anew every time.

Exhibition Program 2026

In March, the first highlight of the partner exhibition program awaits. This will be the fifth edition of the Slovenian Jewelry Week, on view from 26 March to 18 April.

Slovenian Jewelry Week is organized in co-production with the SIJAJ Institute. A total of 154 artists applied for the exhibition, and an international jury selected 55 exhibitors from 27 countries. This year’s exhibition promises to be a feast for the eyes, thanks in part to a new exhibition structure and layout.

For the first time, we will host the Materials Week program, from 13 to 18 April 2026, which will also include a smaller exhibition of various biomaterials.

A rich accompanying program will also take place – for children, in partnership with Mala ulica, we are once again preparing the Material Playroom. In the labs, material workshops, adult workshops, and a masterclass on natural construction with Belgrade-based architect Katarina Živkovič will be held. On 17 April, Reuse Day will take place in the park in collaboration with Ekologi brez meja and the City of Ljubljana.

The next highlight follows in May with the 6th International Ceramics Triennale UNICUM 2026. The exhibition opens on 15 May and will run all summer until 5 September.

UNICUM has been running for 18 years as an exhibition of artistic ceramics, organized by the National Museum of Slovenia. We are proud to enter into co-production with this national institution and expand UNICUM into the field of applied ceramics, which is globally recognized as an important branch of ceramic design.

Our call for exhibitors for the applied ceramics exhibition titled Form and Function of Ceramics: Boundless Use, organized and implemented by Center Rog, received over 100 applications. The selection of works will be prepared in the coming days by a three-member international jury.

Part of the exhibition will also feature a national focus – a curated exhibition of seven Polish ceramic designers, organized in collaboration with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Polish Embassy in Slovenia.

During the summer, our park will again be illuminated for one month by Guerrilla Light, on view from 27 May to 21 June. This light festival is organized by the FORUM LJUBLJANA Institute, with Center Rog co-producing the installation of light works in the Park of the Erased. This year, we are preparing two light installations by artists from China and Germany.

We traditionally conclude the exhibition season in November during the Rog Design Days Festival (23 November 2026 – 8 February 2027) – this year under the theme More Than Us. Our main annual thematic exhibition, Rog Expo, will be on display, showcasing works created in-house – either as a result of residencies or within production lab programs. This exhibition is also international. We invite you to mark the opening date, 25 November. The internal call for submissions of works created at Center Rog will be published on 12 February, with a submission deadline of 18 September 2026.

Community Development Programs

In 2025, we launched the New Beginnings mentoring program, aimed at individuals in the process of obtaining or already holding international protection. We will continue this program, recruiting participants as we go, usually with the help of our partner organizations in this field.

Community Kitchen is a new program we are developing this year. Experiences from similar community kitchens (e.g., Brotfabrik in Vienna) have shown how powerful a tool cooking can be for connecting people in a neighborhood and building trust among diverse individuals and communities, regardless of gender, race, nationality, religion, or other identities.

The pilot Community Kitchen program is expected to involve 50 participants from various migrant and refugee communities. The program is being developed and implemented in partnership with and with the financial support of the ZRC SAZU Institute for Migration.

Neighbour Day as a community celebration will take place this year on Saturday, 6 June. On this day, more than 50 free activities will take place in the park and building, attracting over 2,000 visitors. More than 20 organizations and initiatives will have stalls in the park. Last year, over 100 individuals and more than 30 partner organizations contributed to preparing and delivering the program. In mid-March, we will publish a call for all those who wish to participate or showcase, with preparatory activities again taking place in the labs in April and May.

Participatory Budget: Currently, Center Rog is the only cultural institution in Slovenia running a participatory budget, allowing members of Center Rog to co-decide on the allocation of €20,000 in designated funds. At the end of 2025, nine projects were voted for implementation, the largest being a greenhouse in the park. All approved ideas will be realized by the end of this year.

Residency Programs

In 2026, we plan both individual and group residency programs.

Our longest residency program, »Designer in Residence«, will host up to five international designers who will develop works on the theme More Than Us and present them at the Rog Expo exhibition. Residents will be selected based on a call that is currently open until 3 March 2026.

In addition, we are planning two group making residencies. In the first, in May, a group of makers and designers will design and create a shade structure for part of our park, which will begin pilot use in 2026. The call will be published in the coming days, and we would appreciate partners sharing it.

A call for the second group thematic residency in the field of ceramics is expected to be published in March.

It is also important to mention the outstanding residency program Come to Ljubljana!, aimed at Slovenian creators from outside the central Slovenian region or from cross-border areas. Each year, we host 10 craftspersons or designers for a two-week stay at Center Rog, where they experiment, prototype, or train in new techniques and machinery.

Photo: Leana Herak