ArmInfo. Armenian winners of the 44th International Children?s Exhibition of Fine Arts LIDICE will receive their prizes from hands of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Czech Republic to the Republic of Armenia, H. E. Mr. Petr Mikyska, at special Award ceremony on Thursday December 8, 2016, starting at 15:00 at the Komitas Museum - Institute, 28 Arshakunyats Ave., Yerevan.
As the press-service of the Czech Embassy to Armenia informs, the International Children's Exhibition of Fine Arts Lidice (ICEFA Lidice) was established in 1967 to commemorate the child victims from the Czech village of Lidice murdered by German Nazis, as well as all other children who have died in wars. Marking the 70th anniversary of UNESCO and its foremost priority - educational development of all people, 2016 edition dedicated to the theme SCHOOL? EDUCATION saw 18,075 participating children from 77 countries.
The theme only seems easy. This year it was confirmed more than ever how important in the course of children's artistic work the role is of a teacher who is able to motivate the children and pick up an inspiring element among the sub-themes of an initially not very attractive theme, offer them a suitable artistic medium and encourage them to render it in an interesting way. Certainly, the prevalent motive of the competition entries was the school environment, which children are very familiar with - school buildings, roads and paths to schools, teaching staffs and non-teaching personnel, specialized classrooms and rooms full of interesting specimens. Children were keen to show us their classrooms, invited us to participate in their classes, made us acquainted with their teachers, schoolmates and friends, drew us into vigorous activities pursued during breaks, took us to interesting school excursions and trips and many times they unpacked their school bags including snacks.
Out of the total of 18,075 entries from 77 countries and 1,483 organizations, 1,390 were awarded prizes including 212 medals (147 individual medals, 3 medals for children's team work and 62 medals to schools for their collections) for 68 countries and 448 organizations. Armenia was represented by 12 schools with total of 204 works. The most active is, traditionally, Dilijan Children's Art School named after O. Sharambeian. This year the school was awarded a medal to the school for their collection of paintings and drawings. Milena Kocharian (12 years) of the same school was also awarded the highest prize - the Rose of Lidice medal. In total Armenian children got two medals and six Honourable Mentions.