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Edition 39

Dear friends,

The theme of this year’s international fine arts competition “THAT IS WHERE I LIVE, THAT IS ME” attracted children and teachers to such an extent that they contributed to the record number of the this year’s entries. And again, the panel of judges had to assess some more entries than in the previous year – 25,450 areal and spatial entries combined. The children reflected everything around them in their creations, everything they live amidst. The themes that occurred frequently were architecture, cities, towns and villages with their landmarks, houses and gardens, nooks and little rooms with dolls. Children often made their self-portraits or drew their families and friends.

Members of the international panel of judges appreciated and commended those schools that had sent in thoughtfully created collections based on the knowledge of the means of expression in fine arts, refined collections containing sensitively and discriminatingly selected entries. It is obvious that high-quality education in arts and professional approach of individual teachers are the prerequisites of good results. Besides those high-quality entries, however, there were also many entries that dwelt on what is obvious at the first sight, not going more deeply into the matter; some of them demonstrated inconsistency, indicating that the children had not been taught about the materials and their potentials in visual arts.

Notwithstanding the pluses and minuses, it is gratifying that more and more children from more and more countries are participating in the exhibition – for the first time ever this year we received entries by children from Algeria, Belgium, Brunei, Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Panama and Turkmenistan – and that the numbers of entries from individual countries (Azerbaijan, the UK, Uzbekistan) are raising as well. These facts suggest good work of the Czech diplomatic missions, which distribute information on the exhibition. The numbers of entries from individual countries differ significantly – apart from large collections from Belarus, Bulgaria, Latvia, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and newly also Hong Kong, there were also countries that had only several entries (Bangladesh, France, Italy, Cape Verde Islands, Hungary) so that it was impossible for the panel to assess the artistic standard of the country and to select the very best of it. Established success went to children from Bulgaria, India, Iran, Japan, Latvia, Malaysia, Russia and Turkey while photography saw outstanding entries by children from Croatia, Russia and Ukraine. A heart-warming fact is that also the number of participating Czech and Slovak schools is raising – this edition saw entries from 383 schools in the Czech Republic and 77 ones in Slovakia.

Out of the total 25,450 entries from 66 countries 1,471 were selected by the panel of judges to win prizes including 212 medals. Out of 15,983 foreign entries 622 won prizes, among them 92 medals (67 individual medals and 25 medals to schools for their collections). The most medals were given to children from Bulgaria, Latvia, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Czech children sent in 6,765 entries this year and received 606 prizes including 88 medals (49 individual medals and 39 medals to schools for collections). The most successful were children from Primary Art School Kolín, Primary Art School Most, Primary Art School Plzen and Primary Art School Strakonice. Having sent in 2,702 entries this year, Slovak schools received 243 prizes including 32 medals (19 individual ones and 13 medals to schools). The most successful participants were children from Primary Art School Banská Bystrica, Primary Art School Holíč, Primary Art School Michalovce, Primary Art School Prešov and Primary Art School Spišská Belá. The international panel of judges awarded the Prize of the Panel of Judges to the school Simply Art from Hong Kong. Besides achieving outstanding results in the exhibition every year, this school sent in a balanced and unique collection of areal entries this year.

The 39th edition of the competition culminated in the exhibition of winning works, which was opened ceremonially at the Lidice Gallery at Lidice on 1 June 2011, in the presence of many ambassadors and political and cultural figures of the Czech Republic. An invitation to the opening of the exhibition received representatives of the school awarded with the Prize of the Panel of Judges this year – the laureates from the school Simply Art from Hong Kong.

The exhibition at Lidice will be open from 1 June to 31 October 2011; then, in a reduced extent, it can be seen at other places of the Czech Republic – at the Primary Art School Most, NKP Ležáky and NKP Lety. The touring sets of exhibits are available for loan to schools, libraries or other cultural facilities.

Our thanks go to all who took part in the competition, to all who drew, painted or modelled their vision of the given theme and sent their creations to the competition, regardless of whether they received a prize or not. Thanks to those contributions, this year’s exhibition is again a unique one! We thank also to all teachers because it is the character of the teacher, his skill, knowledge, zeal and responsibility what plays a vital role in good results of children’s art work.

Ivona Kasalická, Head of the Lidice Gallery and Curator of ICEFA Lidice
May 2011

Rules for the 39th edition of the International Children´s Exhibition of Fine Arts Lidice 2011

Taking into account the new Constitution of the International Children’s Exhibition of Fine Arts Lidice of 26 Sep 2006 in force and its provisions regarding the organization of the exhibition, in order to ensure and achieve the aims contained in the Constitution as the fundamental document on the organization of the relevant project, the Organizer issues the following rules (conditions):

1. The announcing date of the 39th edition of the International Children’s Exhibition of Fine Arts Lidice 2011 (hereinafter ICEFA Lidice): May 2010.
2. The closing date for accepting entries: 15 March 2011.

3. The proposal for the budget of ICEFA Lidice 2011:
   Until the proposal for the budget of 2011 is presented to the promoter, i.e. the Ministry of Culture of the CR, pursuant to its dispositions, the Organizer is entitled, if needed, to reimburse the travel expenses related to the ceremonial announcement of the winners of the current edition of the ICEFA Lidice competition at the Lidice Gallery to selected child winner from abroad and his/her accompanying person (i.e. one adult) under the following conditions:

   1. reimbursement of travel expenses under 500 km: by train, by bus, by car or by public transport,
   2. reimbursement of travel expenses over 500 km: by train, by bus, by car, by public transport or by air from the international airport nearest to the place of residence of the winner to Prague and back.
4. The date of announcing the outcome of the 38th edition of the Exhibition at the ICEFA web site www.mdvv-lidice.cz: 10 May 2011 at the latest.
5. The date of the ceremonial opening of the exhibition and the competition prize awards: 1st June 2011
6. The main exhibition at Lidice Gallery: runs from 1 June to 31 October 2011.
7. The date of the deinstallation of ICEFA: 1 November 2011.
8. The date of the session of the expert panel of judges: 7 and 8 April 2011.

These rules come into effect on 23. 12. 2010

At Lidice on 23. December 2010

JUDr. Milouš Červencl
Director of the Lidice Memorial