Mission & Vision

Vision

We want to preserve the stories of women artists from the Balkans. ABU safeguards a piece of history that can become an inspiration for new generations.

If even one person, after visiting the ABU website or Instagram page, wants to learn more about an artist they hadn't heard of before — our vision has already begun to live.

Mission

Our mission is to preserve and present the artistic contributions of women from the Balkans, bring back the stories of those who were forgotten or overlooked, and spark interest in art beyond the major centers and dominant narratives.

Why this project

Women artists from the Balkans are frequently present in collections and local histories, yet absent from widely used reference tools. This gap shapes what gets taught, exhibited, and cited.

A hundred years ago, if a woman wanted to pursue art, she likely wouldn't have had access to schools or artists' associations. Women who did manage to make art often remained in the shadow of a husband or father — their work sometimes left out of group exhibitions, or even mocked.

Women's experience is different today in many respects. Still, there's no single archive preserving the work of women who made art under social conditions that made it significantly harder to do so.

ABU is focused on correcting that historical imbalance — the goal is to add a voice where one is missing, not to take a voice away from anyone. By focusing on women artists, we want to help their achievements find a place in collective memory.

Working Method

Arhiva Balkanskih Umetnica exists to support careful, transparent research. We prioritize primary and scholarly sources, document naming variations, and record uncertainty when evidence is incomplete. Every profile is published together with its sources, so the research behind it can be checked, questioned, or continued by others.