Culture and Art

Culture plays an important part in people´s lives. The role of culture or art is to entertain and educate. Art enriches our inner life. It stimulates our imagination and people learn to recognize what is aesthetical and what isn´t.
Culture helps people avoid stress and boredom. Everybody´s cultural life can be spent in a different way.

Cultural life in small towns is not as rich as in large cities. There are some ways of spending leisure time. We can go to the cinema, to the theatre or go dancing. If we are interested in art or history we can visit galleries to see the exhibitions of drawings, paintings or sculptures. Or we can go to a museum. Some people prefer staying at home so they listen to the radio, watch TV or read books which they can borrow from the library.

Cinema

There is one cinema in our town. The performance is usually twice a day. On Sunday afternoon they show special films for children. The films played in the cinema are not specialized, so we can see various kinds of films from commedies to thrillers.
In the past cinemas used to be full of people but the situation has changed a lot these days. People have less free time and are lazier to leave their homes. They rather borrow a DVD and watch it comfortably at home. Some people download films from the internet so they can see the newest films even before it is performed in the cinema. For some people the reason for not going to the cinema is the fact that the repertory is focused on presenting commercial, action films which do not interest more demanding cinema-goers and there are not many films of European production. The last reason can be high admission.

Theatre

Small towns provide little opportunity to see the theatre performances. There is no permanent theatre building in our town so when theatre companies come to give a performance here they act on the stage of our cultural house. The nearest theatres are in Spišská Nová Ves, Prešov or Košice. In the theatres we can see many different shows, plays, operas, musicals, ballets or concerts.

Going to the theatre is a very special occassion for everyone. People come dressed up in smart clothes. They take off their coats in the cloakroom. Then the attendant shows them their seats. When people have sat down, they can read the programe to see who stars in the play or opera and who plays the supporting roles.When everything is ready the lights go out, the curtain goes up and the performance begins. During the interval, between tho acts, people can walk in the foyer, buy some refreshments and share opinions of the performance with friends

Concerts

Pop music concerts are also given in the cultural house. In summer concerts can also be given in our open air theatre where also the rock festival Local Life takes place.
Concerts of chamber or organ music can be seen in our beautiful churches, especially the Wooden Articular Church is known for its perfect accoustics and also for its organ with magnificient sound.

Discos and Clubs

Young people like going to the discos or clubs. In our town we have two discos and one youth club where small concerts and exhibitions are given.

In summer, in the beginning of July a huge Festival of European Folk Crafts takes place in our town. It is a great exhibition of handicraft, folk music and traditions accompanied by rich cultural programe for all generations.

There is a group of people who are not interested in culture so much and they prefer staying at home. They watch TV or listen to the radio. They have a cable or satelite TV with different channels. In a way, television can contribute positively to the nation´s education and it brings culture to our homes. On the other hand, watching too much TV can have a negative effect especially on children and young people. The commercial production of films performed on TV is full of violence, sex or drug abuse. Children can copy the behaviour of their heroes, they get aggressive or use swear words. Young people can see taking drugs as a common fact so why not try it, too? Pictures of free love and sexual relationships can have a bad influence, too.