Premise and current status of the project

On May 31, 2020, the world bid farewell to one of the most beloved and popular artists of our time – Gabrovo-born Christo.

The idea for the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center in Gabrovo is hardly new. On January 14, 1992 the local newspaper 100 vesti suggested a permanent exhibition of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s projects. In 2008 Our Greater Gabrovo Association, an NGO led by the newspaper’s publisher Ivan Gospodinov, proposed an art center named after the artists to be built in town. The City Council approved the initiative with Decision 113 of June 19, 2008.

Under an agreement signed by Christo and his brothers – Stefan and Anani Yavachev in 2013, the Municipality of Gabrovo received a donation of 50 posters and committed itself to establishing a Center for Contemporary Art Christo and Jeanne-Claude. In 2017 two exhibitions were organized at the Museum of Humor in Gabrovo: Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Projects and Born in Gabrovo (the latter dedicated to Christo’s childhood). Due to public interest both remained on view for a year and were a major catalyst for the development of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center. The Museum of Humor was instrumental in steering the initiative until it could become an autonomous project.

After researching and evaluating various possibilities for using an existing building or constructing a new one, the project team, Gabrovo Municipality and City Council reached the decision to realize the Center in the building of the former Textile Vocational School (closed in 2009). The building was found to be very suitable both because of its spacious high-ceilinged workshops, which could be transformed into excellent exhibition halls and production spaces, and because of the connection between the main subject of the school – textiles – and the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

As of November 2022 the building’s ownership was transferred from the Ministry of Education to Gabrovo Municipality. In June 2022 the Municipality received a technical assistance grant from the European Commission under the programme Support to New European Bauhaus Local Initiatives, through which experts of Ramboll Management Consulting worked with the project team to support the Center’s institutional and business development, a functional analysis, and a brief for an international architectural competition. In the field of art and culture, Ramboll Management are known for building the extension to Tate Modern (2016) and the Helsinki Central Library (2018).

On September 17, 2025 the Council of Ministers passed Decree No 186/17.09.2025 with which the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Regional Center for Contemporary Art was established. On November 13 the same year the City Council of Gabrovo approved the statute of the new organization. Margarita Dorovska, who has worked on the project since June 2016, was appointed as its first director.

The adaptive reuse reconstruction of the building is supported by Regions in Growth Programme 2021 – 2027. The funding agreement concluded on November 7, 2025 is for 17 435 043 euro and covers renovation, furnishing and equipment. The equipment of the fab and media lab of the Center will be supplied through funding by by Research, Innovation and Digitalisation for Smart Transformation Programme 2021 – 2027. The agreement is for 255 646 euro and was concluded on February 10, 2026.

We are particularly proud that the Center is considered a non-partisan initiative and relies on strong support from the local government. All City Council decisions regarding the project have always passed unanimously, with full majority, even at times of political tension and crisis. It is a positive sign that projects of high social significance can unite politicians and local representatives of different colors and the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center has consistently proven to be such.

True to the artists

The Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center will comprise exhibitions featuring the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, as well as a documentary exhibition on the history of the Yavachev family in Gabrovo and Cristo’s childhood. In order to function as a living organism, the Center will also offer a dynamic program of temporary exhibitions, presenting young artists whose art shares common features with Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s projects. However, our goal is to go beyond enjoyment of art and taste of history. We aim to create a site of knowledge production and collaboration, evoking the complex process Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s projects relied on – involving production managers, photographers, film directors, engineers, manufacturers, collectors, urbanists, curators, ecologists and even financiers (the artists couple were known for securing credit lines for their projects, realized in public space, free and open to all). And we are working to make sure some members of their original milieu of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s projects will be on board.

The approach

Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s art is complex and has many dimensions beyond the typical studio practice – engineering, environmental, urbanism, business aspects, and negotiations. So the activities of the Center are of interest to the art curious, but also to people from different walks of life and disciplines, for whom Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s way to conceive, prepare, negotiate, coordinate, execute, and finally remove their ambitious projects prompts inspiration. Their approach to projects has been instrumental to the realization of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center so far.

The process

Since 2021 the project team has worked with artists and curators from all over the world, as well as with the local art, education and business communities, with various national and international institutions to identify the needs, stakeholders and partners for this project. So far more than 50 focus groups, discussions and meetings have taken place to ensure a truly participatory process with sustainability in mind both in terms of operations and refurbishment of the building.

Since the site of the former Textile School was chosen for the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center, a public art programme has been taking place in the area, aiming to put back the once neglected area back into the living urban texture. It started in 2021 with two temporary sculptures by Nevena Ekimova and continued in 2023 with interventions and sculptures by Martin Penev, Stoyan Dechev, Pia Rognes and Hans Hammond. In 2024 two more works were realized – by Ina Valentinova and Martian Tabakov. 

Once the building was acquired by the Municipality, in the summer of 2023 artists from Gabrovo took studios inside, becoming its first occupants. A funding grant from America for Bulgaria Foundation allowed for some programming activities and furthering the efforts for institutionalization of the Center, such as elaborating a financial plan, a development concept and most crucially, consistent communication and negotiation with the central government aiming at establishing the organization as a public legal entity.

On October 7, 2023 the soft launch of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Center took place with exhibitions, screenings, talks, workshops, open studios, a pop-up shop with artist editions and parties. Since then numerous events have taken place. A new verbatim theatre performance was commissioned, based on documentary material and interviews with former students and teachers from the Textile School. Through the Creative Europe funded project Metamorphosis of Workwear the Center hosted Mariela Gemisheva, Nevena Ekimova and Nikolay Bozhilov, who alongside 13 other artists who had residencies in other European cities with strong legacy in the textile industry, designed workwear for the future of labour. In 2025 the Center hosted the exhibition Linear Encounters: Bulgarian Traces in Abu Dhabi’s Modern Architectural Heritage, which brought together archival documents, photography, audiovisual installations, architectural models and films to reveal how European modernist ideas intertwined with Arab cultural identity and the specific climate of the region. 

The Interreg Danube Region funded NONA project (New Governance for New Spaces) takes the Center and its surrounding area as a pilot site to develop and employ a methodology for mainstreaming green investment into sustainable territorial development. Through the Horizon Programme funded AccesS project the Center has become a demo site, where accessibility and digital environmental monitoring will be integrated in the renovation project.

All these exhibitions, performances and commissions had a crucial role in turning the wheels of the organization so that it developed organically and allowed the team to prototype and test many of the future programmes in the space of the building, thus informing a meaningful design brief for the upcoming architectural competition.

The site and the building

The proximity of the building to another cultural institute of international importance – the Museum of Humor and Satire, facilitates the formation of a complex of cultural and touristic interest.

Its total built-up area is 13,407 sq. m. The larger building used to house all technological labs and workshops for practical training, equipped with various machines and laboratories. The generous dimensions and heights of the interior spaces allow for a variety of new functions. Adjacent to the main building is a smaller one, where the classrooms were located. The general condition of the structures is very good and we would like to reuse and recycle many of the original features, fittings, machinery and furniture. The reconstruction aims at reaching a high level of energy efficiency (near zero emissions building).

Yet, the building is only the means. The goal is urban regeneration and developing a flagship project of international standing. Hence our understanding for developing the Center and its program is to activate as many of the planned functions and programs as possible before the renovation is completed.

Functions, activities, program

Institutional Development

The project is fairly ambitious and it is essential that it:

-embodies the values and work ethic of Christo and Jeanne-Claude

-its development is organic and organized in phases with testing, prototyping and numerous feedback loops, providing for enhancing and scaling of successful activities, redesigning of not so successful ones and abandoning the ones that fail

-relies on the expertise, interest and ownership of multiple stakeholders

-is non-partisan, involving individuals, private and public bodies at local, regional, national and international level.