Kuma’s most enduring initiative is the Kuma International Summer School, whose first edition took place in Sarajevo in June 2018. What began as a small educational program bringing together twenty participants has since grown into an internationally recognised platform for learning, exchange, and critical reflection on art, memory, and post-conflict societies.
The Summer School explores contemporary artistic practices shaped by war, conflict, displacement, and trauma, with a particular focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s violent past and its ongoing social and political transformations, while drawing connections to other regions affected by war.
Through lectures, workshops, field research, exhibitions, and collective exchange, participants engage with themes of memory, survival, exile, reconciliation, and artistic responsibility. They encounter the complex relationship between art, trauma, and post-conflict societies while learning directly from artists, scholars, curators, and educators who experienced war and genocide first-hand.
At the heart of the program lies the belief that lived experience and artistic practice can create powerful spaces for critical reflection, dialogue, and long-term learning. Rather than approaching Bosnia and Herzegovina solely through historical narratives, the Summer School encourages participants to engage with the country through contemporary artistic practices, personal encounters, and situated forms of knowledge.
Across eight editions (2018–2025), the Summer School has welcomed more than 200 participants from over 30 countries, building a vibrant and long-term international network of alumni, collaborators, artists, and partner institutions that continues to grow far beyond the duration of the program itself.
In 2025, the Summer School welcomed artists, researchers, scholars, and participants from across the world to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide and the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dedicated to exploring contemporary artistic responses to conflict, displacement, and trauma, the program examined the long-term impact of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s violent past alongside the country’s current social and political realities.
Curated by Professor Stephenie Young of Salem State University, the 2025 edition focused on artistic aesthetics, visual narratives, archives, and cultural discourse emerging from Bosnia and Herzegovina, while drawing connections to similar realities in other regions affected by war and social fragmentation. Building on the previous seven editions, the program explored how personal and collective experiences continue to shape narratives of war, exile, survival, identity, and reconciliation.
Set within the symbolic space of the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the program created a temporary community grounded in listening, care, solidarity, and critical reflection, encouraging participants to engage collectively with questions of memory, contemporary art, and post-conflict realities.
Throughout the week, participants engaged in lectures, conversations, workshops, mentorship sessions, and presentations led by scholars and practitioners including Lauren Walsh, Velibor Božović, Giulia Casartelli, Emina Zoletić, Velma Babić, Ana Čvorović, Hariz Halilovich, Isak, Ado Hasanović, Vladimir Miladinović, Mladen Miljanović, Camilla De Maffei, and others.
Find all the details about the 8th edition of the Kuma International Summer School 2025 here. Also, meet our team and guest lecturers and artists who shaped this year’s program.
