Zagreb, 15 March 2019 – For the fifteenth consecutive year, Erste banka has launched the Erste Fragments competition, a project that the bank organizes in collaboration with its urban culture platform Urbanka to provide support to aspiring visual artists under 30 and art academy students. Artists can submit different forms of artwork (sculptures, paintings, graphics, installations, new media and digital installations) for purchase or scholarship, and the People's Choice Award will also be handed out again. In addition, students of art academies in Osijek, Rijeka, Split and Zagreb can apply for one yearly scholarship that will also be awarded. In addition to selected artwork, participants will be able to present one additional piece of artwork at a joint exhibition which will be held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb from 12 to 19 June. All artwork displayed at the exhibition will be available for purchase by museumgoers.

The author of the winning piece of artwork will receive HRK 10,000 and will have the opportunity to stage a solo exhibition at Zagreb's Kranjcar Gallery during 2020. People's Choice Award will amount to HRK 3,000 while the yearly scholarship will be paid out in monthly instalments of HRK 1,000.

Applications can be submitted by 7 April 2019 at Erste banka's website. In addition to applying online, all participants of the competition must also send photos of submitted artwork to: Erste&Steiermärkische Bank d.d., 'Erste Fragments – for the scholarship', Marketing Department, 2 Ivana Lucica Street, 10000 Zagreb. Terms and conditions of the competition can also be found on Erste banka's website.

So far, Erste Fragments competitions have featured around 200 works of art of young visual artists since the first competition was organized in 2002. Today those works of art are located at over 130 locations (branches and office premises) of Erste banka in Croatia. Authors of many of the purchased works, including Tanja Deman, Sebastijan Dracic, Ivan Fijolic, Alem Korkut, Ines Matijevic Cakic, Lala Rascic, Zlatan Vehabovic, Matko Vekic and many others have since become renowned and distinguished figures on the Croatian art scene.

By purchasing artwork through this unique project in Croatia, Erste banka supports young artists taking their first steps, and by exhibiting the artwork at its premises, the bank raises awareness of the important role art plays in everyday life.