Final Exhibition of the Contest “In My Homeland”
On April 14, the opening ceremony of the final exhibition and the award ceremony of the 11th International Art and Graphics Contest “In My Homeland” were held at the gallery “Nature and Art”.
This year, the exhibition and award ceremony took place at the Republican Centre of Ecology and Local History. In the morning, winners of the contest together with their teachers and parents gathered at the centre’s gallery where 352 works of young artists from 22 countries were displayed and the opening ceremony of the exhibition took place. Speeches welcoming participants of the event were delievered by Irina Marchenko, the representative of the Centre of Ecology and Local History, Natalya Svyatkina, the project manager of the Green Cross Belarus NGO, as well as the guests of honor, Rimma Coiler, the first secretary of the US Embassy in Belarus on information, education and culture issues, and Alla Keyge, the representative of the Rossotrudnichestvo.
All the speakers got filled with admiration for the displayed works and noted that children's art was like a bridge between countries and continents, which brought people together and stood against anger and aggression.
After all the speeches, the children were happy to find their works at the exhibition and got acquainted with works of their colleagues. Then, all participants moved to an auditorium, which hosted the most pleasant part of the event: awarding winners and presenting gifts.
The award ceremony began with the welcoming speech of Tatyana Evdasyova, the Chief of the department of information and public relations of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus, and awarding winners with diplomas in environmental nominations. As a prize, representatives of the winners’ schools got a complimentary copy of “The Red Book of the Republic of Belarus”.
The ceremony continued with individual awarding young artists and cartoon artists. Winners of the art and graphics contest got diplomas, medals and prizes from Leonid Gomonov, the president of the jury board, an artist, and winners of the contest of animated cartoons and slidefilms were awarded by Galina Romanova, a member of the jury board, an art director of cartoons. During the ceremony, the winning cartoons were displayed, which made the event more vivid and joyful.
The contests’ managers hope that the contests, exhibitions and awards will contribute to further fruitful development of young artists and cartoon artists.