Cankarjev dom – CD Cultural and Congress Centre located in the heart of Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana, is a synonym for art and congress events in the region. This world-renowned organization and venue famous not only for the diversity of its programme but also for its architecture, is with the 2019/2020 season celebrating its 40th season of cultural and art programme.
The building of Cankarjev dom was built in the late 70’s and opened its doors for public in 1981. Since then, the venue has accepted more than 16 million visitors attending its rich cultural programme as well as the congresses, conferences, seminars, exhibition and fairs that the venue either organized or co-organised or just hosted.
At the press conference, that presented the 40th season’s highlights and plans for the future, that took place in the recently renovated Lili Novy Glass Hall, the director general Uršula Cetinski noted that annually there is more than 18,000 artists performing on one of the Cankarjev dom’s stages. These span from the only arena stage in the country, to the biggest theatre hall in Slovenia that can accept 2,000 visitors and boasts Schuke Organ, the largest in this part of Europe.
Furthermore, Cankarjev dom is every year visited no less than by half a million people what makes for an even more special number when knowing that there is around 275,000 residents in Ljubljana, and only two million in the whole country. The high number of visitors is not surprising when taking into account the fact that Cankarjev dom annually hosts between 2,000 to 2,500 artistic, congress and scientific events.
Uršula Cetinski, director general says, “The congress activity inside Cankarjev dom brings 25% of the revenue and all of the profit from it goes into the artistic programme and this is the reason that Cankarjev dom can host performances of the highest level in the world.” Thus, it is said that actually every congress visitor to Cankarjev dom congresses contributes to its rich arts and cultural programme that is unmatched region-wise.
In addition, the scientific programme that is either hosted through round tables, presentations, speeches, or through congresses and conferences, is extremely important for the Slovenian science as the local scientists get an opportunity to step into a dialogue with scientists from abroad what provides for promising future collaborations and discoveries.