There is an amazing, and growing number of Slavic museums and heritage sites which extend their role in society with a significant local or national impact. That is admirable in itself, but these experiences need to be shared, seen and acknowledged. And the Živa Award – with all its applicants – is a major entrance point for the FSK stakeholders, colleagues and audiences.

The Award serves as a platform for sharing and promoting – in Slavic countries as well as in the broader group of European countries. Both main awards (The Živa Award for the Best Slavic Museum and the Živa Award for the Best Slavic Heritage Site) are dedicated to the promotion of the protection, preservation, education and communication of museum collections, and of heritage sites, their diversity in type, size and contents as well as their social role by highlighting their innovative and creative approaches, accessibility to the public and openness, their impact on societies, and their contribution to the development of museological principles and ideas.

There is an amazing, and growing number of Slavic museums and heritage sites which extend their role in society with a significant local or national impact. That is admirable in itself, but these experiences need to be shared, seen and acknowledged. And the Živa Award – with all its applicants – is a major entrance point for the FSK stakeholders, colleagues and audiences.

The Award serves as a platform for sharing and promoting – in Slavic countries as well as in the broader group of European countries. Both main awards (The Živa Award for the Best Slavic Museum and the Živa Award for the Best Slavic Heritage Site) are dedicated to the promotion of the protection, preservation, education and communication of museum collections, and of heritage sites, their diversity in type, size and contents as well as their social role by highlighting their innovative and creative approaches, accessibility to the public and openness, their impact on societies, and their contribution to the development of museological principles and ideas.

• The Živa Award is open for the candidates from the following countires: Belarus, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.
• Applications are free of any financial obligations.
• Applications are welcomed from all types of museums: historical, natural-historical, technical, industrial museums or science centers, ethnographic, architecture, literary, music, art, and others. The museums can be local, regional, national or federal. Private ones are also welcome.
• Applications are welcomed from all types of heritage sites: historical buildings and structures, monuments, architectural works, archaeological sites, cultural and natural museum reserves, revitalized, reconstructed industrial buildings and areas used for museum and cultural purposes, combined works of man and nature such as gardens and parks – heritage sites of exceptional historical, artistic, scientific ethnological and anthropological value.

• To share the ideas and results with colleagues from Slavic countries and abroad.
• To have a platform to speak up and to exchange at the Award ceremony.
• To get promoted in the Živa catalogue, website, video and all FSK press-releases all year long.
• To get a wider visibility among European institutions.
• To gain an excellent PR to the stakeholders.

The selection procedure starts every autumn when an international call is published and the information on it is widely disseminated. With the assistance of the international jury the promotion and candidacies submissions take place until the end of the year. The first half of the year is dedicated to the evaluation and decisions. The judges pay visists to the museum candidates upon their complete applications. In May or the beginning of June the judges get together, review their reports, exchange their expert evaluations and decide on the award and special recognitions winners. The summer is dedicated to the organization of the Živa Award ceremony that is gradually turning into a professional get-together with the exchange of experiences.

The Živa Award cycle is concluded by the award ceremony in September. In the years of its existence the event evolved into a three-day long professional gathering featuring experts from various fields that are often complementary to the museology. A specific characteristic, now already a common practice is the presentation of the previous winner and its experiences over the year. The cycle might be fixed but the award ceremony moves to a different location every year. This brings about a great opportunity to get much better acquainted with the environments we work with.