The history of the Slovak version of the award, which is part of a wider international network of similar awards YVAA – Young Visual Artists Awards, dates back to 1996, when it was founded under the name Young Slovak Artist of the Year by the founder and director of the American foundation The Foundation for a Civil Society (FCA) Wendy W. Luersova. Together with her husband William Luers, the American ambassador in Prague, she spent several years in Czechoslovakia, and after the fall of the communist regime, she decided to help the countries of the Eastern Bloc in the cultural field: she founded the tradition of awarding art prizes, connected with the subsequent stay of the winner in the USA. Since 2001, the Slovak version of the project bears the current name of the Oskar Čepan Award, after the fine arts theorist Oskar Čepan (1925-1992).

Text from the OSkar Cepan Award website