International children's exhibition of fine arts - CEHIA

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(cu desenele postate in luna martie)

Dear friends,
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.
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. 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.
This year we received 26,064 entries from 67 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. (continuarea pe site)