Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts (Serbian: Црногорска академија наука и умјетности; Crnogorska akademija nauka i umjetnosti or CANU) is the most important scientific institution of Montenegro.
It was founded in 1973 as the Montenegrin Society for Science and Arts (Crnogorsko društvo za nauku i umjetnost) and adopted its current name in 1976. It currently has 40 members (academicians) in three departments: natural sciences, humanities and arts.
The CANU is often considered and described as a pro-Serbian institution in Montenegro, as the academy' posits the Serb ethnic origin of the Montenegrins. In opposition to this, a splinter group of intellectuals had formed the Doclean Academy of Sciences and Arts (DANU) in 1997, registered as a non-governmental organization, in an attempt to counter the official pro-Serbian academy.
Amid the constitutional reforms of 2007 CANU had resisted the standardization of the Montenegrin language supporting the interpretation according to which Montenegrin is a dialect of the Serbian language. Some of CANU's prominent members have actively participated in the campaign against Montenegro's independence in the 2006 independence referendum. CANU president Momir Đurović had in 2007 maintained contacts with members of the pro-Serbian political opposition, and had visited the headquarters of the Serb People's Party and its leader Andrija Mandić during the negotiations on language-naming in the new constitution. The Academy has also criticized Montenegrin government's decision to recognize Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence.
CANU is also a member of the Board for Standardization of the Serbian Language and does not participate in the efforts aimed at standardizing the Montenegrin language.
Its membership has included:
- Painters Vojo Stanić, Milos Vusković and Aleksandar Prijić,
- Oscar-winning animator Dušan Vukotić,
- Writers Mihailo Lalić, Radovan Zogović and Ćamil Sijarić,
- Art historian Pavle Mijović
- Physicist Dragiša Ivanović.
List of presidents of the Montenegrin Academy of Arts and Sciences:
- Historian Branko Pavićević (born 1922) (1973–1981),
- Economist Branislav Šoškić (born 1922) (1981–1985),
- Economist Mirčeta Ðurović (born 1924) (1985–1989),
- Surgeon Dragutin Vukotić (born 1924) (1989–2001), and
- Engineer Momir Ðurović (born 1941) (since 2002)
Famous quotes containing the words sciences and arts, academy, sciences and/or arts:
“These modern ingenious sciences and arts do not affect me as those more venerable arts of hunting and fishing, and even of husbandry in its primitive and simple form; as ancient and honorable trades as the sun and moon and winds pursue, coeval with the faculties of man, and invented when these were invented. We do not know their John Gutenberg, or Richard Arkwright, though the poets would fain make them to have been gradually learned and taught.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created.”
—bell hooks (b. c. 1955)
“The prime lesson the social sciences can learn from the natural sciences is just this: that it is necessary to press on to find the positive conditions under which desired events take place, and that these can be just as scientifically investigated as can instances of negative correlation. This problem is beyond relativity.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)
“No performance is worth loss of geniality. ‘Tis a cruel price we pay for certain fancy goods called fine arts and philosophy.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)