Homepage » About the exhibition » Press releases » 38th ICEFA Lidice 2010 - The Opening Ceremony - Final Press Release
38th ICEFA Lidice 2010 - The Opening Ceremony - Final Press Release
28. 11. 2010
On Wednesday, 26 May 2010, in the presence of ambassadors and political and cultural figures of the Czech Republic, the Lidice Gallery at Lidice hosted the ceremonial opening of the 38th INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S EXHIBITION OF FINE ARTS LIDICE 2010.
The event saw the attendance of Senator Jiří Dienstbier, Deputy Minister of Culture of the CR JUDr František Mikeš, RNDr. Jiří Žalman and Mgr. Hana Prixová Dvorská of the Ministry of Culture of the CR, Alena Libřická and Jaroslava Babanová of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the CR, JUDr. Miroslav Šimůnek and RNDr. Pavla Zieleniecová, CSc. of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the CR, RNDr. Ján Polák a Mgr. Zuzana Karásková of the Ministry of the Environment and Chairwoman of the Czech Commission for UNESCO Prof. RNDr. Helena Illnerová, DrSc. From among the embassies of the participating countries, there were present the representatives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde Islands, Cuba, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Iran, Japan, Lithuania, Moldova, Peru, Serbia, Turkey and Venezuela.
The best child artists from the Czech Republic received prizes “Rose of Lidice” medals in person from Jiří Dienstbier, František Mikeš, Miroslav Šimůnek and from Helena Illnerová. during the ceremonial opening. This year’s foreign guests were invited for the ceremony in Lidice - the 8-year-old Lithuanian girl Skaisté Tamošaityté and her teacher Renata Mečkovskiené from the Art School at Trakai have received prizes from Lithuanian ambassador Aurimas Taurantas and the Japanese boy Nathan Son, who attends the Japanese school in Prague, received his prize from the director of the Japanese Cultural and Information Centre Kohei Tsukamoto. Also the representatives of the Primary Art School Spišská Belá, accompanied by the three of its laureates, came to Lidice to receive the Prize of the Panel of Judges. They received their prizes from consul of the Slovak Embassy Jozefína Škorupová.
Pupils of the Buštěhrad Primary Art School and Primary Art School Praha 4 Lounských appeared at the opening while the accompanying programme entertained the children with a theatrical performance, plays and games prepared by the Leisure-time Centre Labyrint Kladno and with rides in a horse-drawn carriage.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:
The exhibition and competition, as its name suggests, is organized annually to commemorate the murdered Lidice children. Although national initially, this exhibition became an international one in 1973 and since then it has become well known among children and teachers not only in our country but literally all over the world. ICEFA Lidice is intended for children from 4 to 16 years of age from schools and youth centres of every kind, while the prevailing techniques are painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, ceramics and combined technique.
Since 2001 the exhibition has been organized by the Lidice Memorial with the support and under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture of the CR, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the CR, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the CR, the Czech Commission for UNESCO and this year also the Ministry of the Environment of the CR.
38th ICEFA LIDICE:
As the year 2010 was declared the Year of Biodiversity, the UNESCO proposed to dedicate the 38th ICEFA Lidice 2010 to a theme relating to BIODIVERSITY – VARIETY OF LIVING NATURE. Children could draw inspiration from many sub-themes: “beetles and butterflies in my country”, “who lives in rivers and lakes of my country”, “trees and forests in my country”, “wildflowers and graminoids in my country”.
This year the international panel appreciated the resourcefulness and the style of the entries, comparing their degree of elaboration as well as the inventiveness and the creative contribution of a child or a group of children. Expectedly, the theme of this year’s international competition prove to be very suitable and well chosen – the pictures were full of beetles, butterflies, freshwater and marine fish, birds, wild and domestic animals as well as trees, graminoids and flowers.
We received more than 25,000 entries by children from 61 countries this year, with the majority coming from Russia, Belarus and Turkey. We are pleased to say that thanks to enhanced publicity this year witnessed 381 participating schools from the Czech Republic and 71 ones from the Slovak Republic. Moreover, we received entries from foreign countries that did not participate in previous years, e.g. from Bangladesh, Cuba, Estonia, Ethiopia, Mongolia and Paraguay.
STATISTICAL DATA:
Out of the total 25,132 entries from 61 countries 1,463 were selected by the Panel of Judges to win prizes. Children from abroad received 624 prizes, out of which 65 were individual medals and 28 were medals to schools for their collections of works of fine arts. Most of them were won by children from Belarus, Latvia, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. Besides the traditionally interesting works from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines and the Republic of Korea, the photo collections by Croatian children merited extraordinary attention from the panel of judges.
Czech schools were awarded 655 prizes, out of which 48 were individual medals and 28 were medals to schools for their collections. Among the most successful were children from the Primary Art School Kolín, the Primary Art School Strakonice, the Primary Art School Most and the Primary Art School Plzeň. Slovak schools won 184 prizes this year, out of which 16 were individual medals and 4 were medals to schools. The most successful were children from the Primary Art School Banská Bystrica, the Primary Art School Holíč, the Primary Art School Martin and the Primary Art School Spišská Belá. This year’s prize of the Panel of Judges was awarded to the Primary Art School Spišská Belá that has been sending in first-class collections of prints every year. It can be done only thanks to the long-term, systematic and excellent work of the teachers
The exhibition at Lidice will continue till 31 October 2010, then, in a reduced extent, it can be seen at other places of the Czech Republic – at the Primary Art School Most Gallery or at the Museum of Trades and Building at Drnovice. The touring sets of exhibits are available for loan to schools, libraries or other cultural facilities. You are cordially invited to visit these ICEFA venues.
Mgr. Ivona Kasalická
Head of the Lidice Gallery and Curator of ICEFA Lidice
