ULUPUH – The Croatian Association of Artists of the Applied Arts is the umbrella organisation for the applied arts in Croatia. It was founded in 1950 by the association of some forty artists who in the spirit of the social reconstruction of that time championed an art to define mankind’s “immediate objective and spatial environment”. Today ULUPUH numbers more than 1400 members from all over Croatia, working in the new circumstances of global capitalism as a not-for-profit and non-governmental association the basic objective of which is to promote the applied arts and to endorse and protect the rights of its members.

Through history, the applied arts have been understood in different ways, reflecting changes in the social and cultural environment. At the time of the foundation of ULUPUH, they were on the whole a label for the artistic shaping of use objects in the spirit of the Bauhaus School. Today they are faced with the exciting task of re-examining their own identity, particularly as compared with contemporary art on the one hand and design on the other.

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The current way of understanding the applied arts can to some extent be read off from the structure of ULUPUH’s seventeen different departments (click on https://ulupuh.hr/  to visit its page in Croatian, with members and their works):​



Architecture

Photography

Graphic design and visual communications

Product design

Theater and film

Ceramics, porcelain and glass

Applied sculpture

Architectural and urban models design

Toys and Puppets

Fashion design

Goldsmithing, Silversmithing, Metalwork and Jewelry

Restoration

Textile design

Horticulture

Art criticism, art history and theory of art

Applied painting, illustration, comic strip, cartoons and animation art

Multimedia and inter-media



ULUPUH's objectives are:
• developing and stimulating the Applied Arts in Croatia
• promotion and protection of freedom of artistic creativity and appropriate valuation of Applied Arts in Croatia;
• protection of works of applied arts and its members copyrights
• ensuring a lasting impact in shaping cultural policy in Croatia
• enhancing cooperation with other associations of artists at home and abroad, especially to protect the freedom of artistic creation, copyright protection of the moral integrity of the artist, and the social protection of artists

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Activities to achieve these objectives are:

• Participation in the preparation of laws and other regulations in the field of Applied Arts;
• organizing public performances, exhibitions and other events of Applied Arts;
• organizing the publishing, educational, exhibition and service activities;
• promoting international art projects in the country and exhibiting of its members abroad;
• establishment of awards and prizes to encourage creative work and public affirmation of works of applied art;
• collecting and organizing information on art projects of members.



​Having achieved continued viability through various historical changes and social systems, with several decades of experience of working in various circumstances, we are open to all forms of collaboration and partnership with similar associations and institutions at home and abroad.  We are convinced that with common efforts and exchange of experience through exhibitions, publishing work and other projects we can contribute better and more strongly to the promotion and endorsement of the applied arts in all their varied manifestations.