Central and Eastern Europe is Europe’s most promising growth market and Bank Austria Creditanstalt has advanced to become a key player in this region: one reason why Bank Austria Creditanstalt is so successful in CEE is because of its concern for the needs of people in these countries, and its strong interest in the region’s different cultures. Here, BA-CA views art as the most effective means of communication.

This annual report gives readers a glimpse of BA-CA’s cultural activities. Some of the pictures reproduced in the annual report belong to collections maintained by BA-CA and its banking subsidiaries in Central and Eastern Europe. Each year, Bank Austria Creditanstalt buys more than 100 pictures by young artists from Austria and Central and Eastern Europe. The pictures form part of the “Europe in Art” exhibition which HVB Group will show in eight cities in Germany, Austria and CEE in 2005. The other works are taken from a series of exhibitions, organised jointly by BA-CA and Siemens Österreich, entitled “CENTRAL: New Art from New Europe”. The series has met with a favourable response in the four years since it was initiated. More than 50 artists from Austria and Central and Eastern Europe have so far been presented to a broad public in over 20 exhibitions in Austria and CEE as the artists were accompanied on their way to an international career.

Picture for yourself the diverse and very interesting artistic potential which is maturing in the heart of Europe.

Bank Austria Creditanstalt – the leading sponsor of culture in Central and Eastern Europe.