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Panel of judges

The expert panel of judges is made up of teachers of visual art branches at primary art schools and primary schools and of professional visual artists. The number of judges is not fixed, however, the panel has usually 15 - 23 judges. Many of them have engaged in the work with children for many years and also are judges in other art competitions which enhances their knowledge about the quality of art education of children in the schools in our country and abroad.

Report of the Session of the Expert Panel of Judges Held on 5 – 7 April 2012 to Evaluate the 40th ICEFA Lidice 2012

MEMBERS OF THE PANEL OF THE 40th ICEFA LIDICE 2012

Chairman of the panel:

Pavel Rajdl – teacher at the Primary Art School Kolín

Czech members of the panel:

Jana Anděličová - teacher at the Marie Podvalová Primary Art School Prague 9 - Čakovice and the Primary Art School Štítného, Prague 3
Edita Devínská - teacher at the Primary School Prague, Vodičkova
Martin Homola – photographer, Buštěhrad
Ivana Junková – headmistress of the Primary Art School Řevnice, teacher at AAAD Prague, sculptress
Hana Jurková – headmistress of the Private Primary Art School Jeseník
Lada Krupková Křesadlová – photographer and teacher at the Primary Art School Biskupská, Prague 1
Zdeněk Moupic – teacher at the Primary Art School Olomouc
Romana Pavlíčková - headmistress of the Primary Art School Moskevská, Most
Pavel Rajdl – teacher at the Primary Art School Kolín
Ivana Schwarzová – teacher at the Primary Art School Strakonice
Milada Sobková – methodologist at the House of Children and Youth Šumperk
Kateřina Tetivová – teacher at the House of Children and Youth Ulita, Prague 3
Zuzana Vlčková - teacher at the Grammar School Kladno

Foreign members of the panel:

Henry and Iris Lau – the founders of the Gifted Artists Foundation, Hong Kong, China
Renata Mečkovskiené – Art School Trakai, Lithuania
Fred Phillips – member of the panel of judges of the UK sub-competition, Stoke-on-Trent, the UK
Areta Raudzepe – officer of the National Centre for education at the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia, member of the panel of judges of the Latvian ICEFA sub-competition, Riga, Latvia
Ilze Rimicane - art director of the children’s centre Daugmale, member of the panel of judges of the Latvian ICEFA sub-competition, Riga, Latvia

 

The international panel of judges, whose working language was not only Czech, but also English and Russian, had a difficult task this year, because the number of entries made the judges busy for as many as three days. We can say that this year had one of the most demanding sessions in the last 25 years.

To commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of Jiří Trnka (1912 – 1969), a world-famous painter, printmaker, puppeteer, sculptor and illustrator as well as the founder of Czech puppet and animated film, the main theme of this year’s international art competition was set to “THE THEATRE – THE PUPPET – THE FAIRYTALE”. The Lidice Gallery got filled with an incredible lot of puppets, ranging from Spejbl and Hurvinek over glove puppets to marionettes, of small home theatres, shadow theatres, designs of coulisses, curtains, masks and costumes. Also a lot of spectators, actors, directors, musicians and opera singers could be found among the entries. The panel of judges was pleased by world-famous or nationally famous theatres as well as glances into the theatrical history of various countries. Our thanks go to all who had prepared their art collections responsibly and sent in their entries this year, both schools and individuals.

This year’s theme proved to be well chosen, interesting and appealing to young artists. The entries reflect not only interest and joy of work experienced by their creators; it can be clearly seen that artists of all age groups from 4 to 16 properly enjoyed themselves at their work! Extensive art compositions show that schools often prepare their entries for our exhibition collectively – both the Czech and the foreign ones. The entries positively emanated the zest, joy and pleasure associated with the process of their creation. The panel didn’t try to hide their enthusiasm over some splendid ideas in the ceramic, paper, plastic or wooden entries or in drawings, paintings and prints. What a lot of joy and creativity!

Thus, as every year, we can say that the vast majority of entries achieved an excellent artistic standard and was well selected, with sensibility and discretion. On the other hand, the standard of some other entries was very poor, betraying ignorance of the children and superficial approach of their teachers.

However, for several years now, the problem of the exhibition has been the sheer number of entries. Moreover, thanks to the inspiring theme inviting spatial creations, this year had several times more spatial objects than previous years. Their processing and exhibiting for the purpose of assessment by the panel has become an exacting task involving occupation of every vacant space in the basement of the Lidice Gallery, including the depositary, the corridors and the stairways. For smooth operation of the exhibition in upcoming years, this experience calls for reassessment and tightening up the rules of accepting entries (sticking to the set theme, number limits for entries, limitations on the size and weight of spatial entries). As our technical potential and space capacity are limited, the much discussed short film and video section cannot be established. For the same reason, creation of a project section is out of the question.

Assessment of Foreign Entries

Number of foreign entries: 17,403
(14,957 paintings, 464 photographs, 157 ceramic pieces, 1,825 combined technique works)
Number of participating countries: 66
Number of participating schools: 1,232

This year we received entries from 66 countries, many of which participated in the exhibition for the first time (Bahrain, South Africa, Pakistan, Portugal, Seychelles, and Vietnam). Some countries had more schools and children participating (Hungary, Estonia, the United Kingdom). However, the numbers of entries from individual countries widely varied; besides large collections from Belarus, Bulgaria, Hong Kong, Latvia, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine, there were also countries represented by only several entries, often from a single school, so that it was impossible for the panel to assess the artistic standard of the country and to select the very best of it.

As every year, the panel appreciated, in the first place, national traditions and features of the respective countries. It was very interesting to get introduced to various theatres, plays, actors and fairytales of various nations. As has become a tradition, among the well-received planar entries were those by children from Bulgaria (9 medals), Hong Kong (15), Latvia (11 medals), Russia (16 medals) and Turkey (8 medals). There were not many awards in the field of photography; first-quality photo-collections by Croatian children the panel used to see in previous years were severely missed. Standing out among spatial foreign entries was a collection of items of glass and ceramic, from Jugla Vidusskola in Riga, Latvia, and a puppet collection from Center Destskogo Tvorchstva in Izhevsk, Russia.

It is usually very interesting to compare entries of European origin – the entries by children from Cemtral and Eastern Europe, supported by the developed art education system are often of much better quality than entries by children from Western Europe, which lacks art education system with arts remaining a subsidiary subject at primary schools. Also the quality of some spatial entries from abroad remains doubtful; it is typical namely for Asia that entries demonstrate the wish to please, pandering to popular taste, as well as a certain insensitivity to materials demonstrated in unsuitable choices.

Assessment of Czech and Slovak entries:

Czech Republic
Number of entries: 6,366 (4,862 paintings, 138 photographs, 456 ceramic pieces, 910 combined technique works
Number of participating schools: 413
Slovakia:
Number of entries: 2,295 (2,110 paintings, 23 photographs, 12 ceramic pieces, 150 combined technique works
Number of participating schools: 137

As against last year, there were more spatial works among the Czech and Slovak entries; teachers came to Lidice with cars full of fairytale figures, puppets, marionettes and even full puppet theatres made of various materials using varied techniques. Voluminous entries were delivered to the Lidice Memorial also by post or by a courier service. Organizing the delivery of spatial entries, the Lidice Memorial was not able to accept all prepared entries, this year for the first time ever, because of a lack of space.

The planar entries were mainly colour drawings and paintings, prints and drypoint engravings. Compared with the foreign entries, there were few pencil drawings, collages and entries using pasting techniques. As last year, entries by children from primary art schools gained greater success (Blatná, Háj ve Slezsku, Holešov, Humpolec, Jesenice, private art school Jeseník, Kolín, Kroměříž, Mladá Boleslav, Most, Olomouc, Písek, Plzeň, Polička, Prostějov, Strakonice and Zlín Malenovice), mainly due to the systematic and professional work of the teachers. However, all the more the panel of judges values the quality work of teachers at nurseries, (Lišov) primary (Buštěhrad, Červené Pečky, Prague 1 Vodičkova and Sedmikráska Rožnov pod Radhoštěm), special (Arpida České Budějovice, Duha Písek, Domov Raspenava) or secondary schools (Grammar School Krnov, Archbishop Grammar School Kroměříž) as well as at houses of children and youth (House of Children and Youth Prague 2 – Art Studio Vinohrady and Youth Prague 3 Ulita).

The photo collections are being more and more plentiful; among the Czech ones, the excellent collections from the Primary art School Řevnice are highly appreciated. As to the spatial entries, the panel of judges enjoyed the ceramics from the Primary School Červené Pečky, Primary Art School Český Krumlov, Primary Art School Strakonice and Primary Art School Prostějov.

Prizes

Total number of entries: 26,064
Number of participating countries: 67

Out of 26,064 entries from 67 countries 1,434 were selected by the panel of judges to win prizes including 269 medals.

Out of 17,404 foreign entries 724 won prizes including 122 medals (94 medals to individuals and 28 medals to schools for their collections). The most medals were given to children from Bulgaria, Latvia, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Czech children sent in 6,336 entries this year and received 531 prizes including 104 medals (67 medals to individuals and 37 medals to schools for their collections). The most successful were children from Primary Art School Kolín, Primary Art School Háj ve Slezsku, F.X. Richter Primary Art School Holešov, Primary Art School Humpolec, Primary Art School Most, Primary Art School Prostějov and Primary Art School Strakonice.

Having sent in 2,295 entries this year, Slovak schools received 179 prizes including 43 medals (34 medals to individuals and 9 medals to schools). Among the Slovak schools the most successful were Primary School Rajec and Primary School Jarná Žilina, J. Cikker Primary Art School Banská Bystrica, Primary Art School Dolný Kubín, Primary Art School Dunajská Lužná, A. Ciger Primary Art School Kežmarok, Primary Art School Kováčska Košice, Primary Art School Myjava, Private Primary Art School Trenčín and Primary Art School Gaštanová, Žilina and F. Špáni Primary Art School Žilina.

Prize of The Panel of Judges

This year, the Prize of the Panel of Judges was awarded to the Turkish school Kocaeli Bahcesehir Koleji in Kocaeli, which participates regularly in our exhibition, achieving excellent results every year. This year it had sent in a well-balanced and unique collection of planar works, which was assessed by the panel as the best collection of the edition.

Conclusion

Having tested the organization and capacity (space capacity, financial background, workforce) of this extraordinary international competition, the jubilee edition confirmed that it is necessary to update and modify the documents establishing the exhibition. The panel of judges recommends that a joint meeting should be held of the Lidice Memorial team, the members of the panel of judges and representatives of the organizations granting auspices to the exhibition to discuss potential changes in the constitution and the rules of organisation of the exhibition.

Our thanks go to all who took part in the competition, to all who drew, painted, printed or modelled their vision of the given theme and sent their creations to the competition, regardless of whether they won a prize or not. 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. Thanks to all these contributions, this year’s exhibition will be again a unique one! Our thanks go also to the staff of the Lidice Memorial who worked with dedication and willingness and summoned up all their strength to create excellent conditions for the work of the panel of judges as well as this unique exhibition.

Pavel Rajdl
Chairman of the panel of judges of the 40th ICEFA Lidice
Ivona Kasalická
Head of the Lidice Gallery and Curator of ICEFA Lidice
 

Photo: Martin Homola


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