International Art Project “In My Homeland”

Implementation of the Project started in 2001, when the first Republican Festival for Pupils and Students was held within the framework of “Earth Day. Belarus”. Within the framework of the festival, there were many contests of art, applied art, literary, photography, eco-journalism, performing arts, and environmental projects. During the development process of the festival, the greatest interest was paid to the artistic direction, which began growing and developing, and eventually transformed into the International Art Project “In My Homeland”.

The Project’s tasks:

• To search, support and promote juvenile and young talented artists, present their works to a wide audience.
• To conserve and develop traditions of national and regional art education. Actualize the role of an artist-teacher in the educational process.  
• To establish a foundation of creative works made by children and the young from different countries and regions for analytical, methodological and exhibition activities.
• To involve juvenile artists and their teachers into a creative community.
• To encourage authors and audience to deeper understanding and re-thinking of processes taking place on their native land.

The Project includes:

• The International Painting and Graphics Contest
• The International Animation and Slidefilm Contest
• The International Conference of Artists-Teachers
• The Exhibition on the Results of the Painting and Graphics Contest
• The International Art Plein-Airs and Thematic Readings

Contests

Annually, approximately 10000 works from more than 30 countries around the world are submitted to participate in the Project contests: Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, the UK, Hungary, Germany, Hong Kong, Greece, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Canada, Qatar, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Moldova, Namibia, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Poland, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Thailand, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, the Philippines, Croatia, Sri Lanka, Estonia.

The jury board consist of professional artists, cartoon artists and teachers from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and other countries that possess big experiences of working with children. It assesses works submitted for the contest.

The number of winners at contests is not limited, so any works can win that are worthy of being shown to a wide audience, in the opinion of the jury.  

Conference

When the jury finishes its work, the International Conference of Artists-Teachers annually takes place. It gathers teachers, managers of art schools and studios, lecturers of higher art educational institutions, specialists in the field of fine arts and representatives of art magazines from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Poland and other countries, in order to discuss current issues of art education; share experiences, establish cooperation between art educational institutions. Within the framework of the conference, there are exhibitions of artists-teachers, master classes, excursions on art educational institutions and galleries in Minsk that are held annually.

Exhibition

Each spring, a final exhibition of the Contest is held in Minsk. Then, it travels around Belarus and abroad.

The winning works were exhibited at:

• The National National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus,
• The German Bundestag,
• The State Duma in Russia,
• Podlaska Gallery in Poland,
• The National Museum n.a. Andrey Sheptitskiy in Lvov,
• The Museum of Books and Book Printing of Ukraine at the Pechersk Lavra Monastery in Kiev.

In May 2011, an exhibition of the International Painting and Graphics Contest “In My Homeland” was held in Strasbourg, France, during the 10^th session on culture issues of the Council of Europe.  

Catalogue

In 2009 and 2010, catalogues of the Painting and Graphics Contest were published which included the winning works as well as photos and thoughts of members of the international jury board.

Plein-airs and readings

2012 – The International Art Plein-air “Dialogue of Centuries: 1812-2012” dedicated to events of Napoleon’s Russian campaign of 1812.

2013 – The International Summer Plein-Air and the 1^st International Public and Scientific Readings “Dialogue of Centuries: World War I and the World Today”

2014 – The 2^nd International Public and Scientific Readings “Dialogue of Centuries: World War I and the World Today”

2016 – The International Art Plein-air “The Dnieper Ferry” dedicated to acquaintance with Eastern Polesye and the Dnieper region of Belarus and Ukraine

ORGANIZED BY:

• The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus
• The Green Cross Belarus Non-Governmental Organization

PARTNERS:

• Green Cross International
• ROSSOTRUDNICHESTVO
• Green Cross Switzerland
• Green Cross Russia
• “Vvedenskaya Storona”  magazine
• “Artclas” magazine
• The Republican Ecological Centre for Children and Youth
• The art gallery “University of Culture”
• Publishing office “Belprint”

In 2008, the contest “In My Homeland” was awarded with the Grand Prix of the Russian National Award “Ecoworld-2008” and with the Honorary Diploma of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus.