Should this be taken away from them?
Yesterday we informed you about the decision of the Slovak Arts Council, which is subsidized from public sources, i.e. from taxes, not to support the 25th Rye Island Crayons - International Exhibition of Creative Artwork of Preschool-Aged Children.
Despite the fact that we know that the subsidy is not claimable, we, as well as our expert jury, were shocked by the reason why the contest will not be supported.
The following excerpt is from the reaction of the chairman of the jury, art historian, university professor and author of countless monographs on visual artists, PhDr. Bohumír Bachratý, CSc, who opens exhibitions for academic artists from Aš to Košice.
Rye Island Crayons is a unique exhibition of children's artwork with participants from all over Slovakia and Central Europe, but also with the repeated participation of the Asian countries of Bangladesh and Hong Kong (a total of 22 countries). The contest provides a space for the first presentation of children's creative work in the range of figuration - landscape - still life, drawings and images of vision and awareness, play and imagination, the visible world and the soul and emotions, desires and fantasies of the smallest children. Their art is a suggestive visual language, a testimony and a document at the same time. Several points of the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child are also included in the concept of the exhibition – such as the rights to mental development, love, education, creativity, the right to art that educates, art that makes aware and helps develop. The contest and exhibition is where budding talents are SEEN for the first time.
This is what Rye Island Crayons offers to children and their pedagogues.
Should this be taken away from them? Throughout the years, thousands of children and hundreds of teachers have participated in the Rye Island Crayons competition, and this participation has been accompanied with the joy of the parents visiting our exhibitions, studying the thick, high-quality catalogues. This and the cultural community are a large target group. Rye Island Crayons are an excellent and irreplaceable form of presenting children's artistic creativity, especially in our time of growing electronic media and the risks of ʺdigital dementiaʺ, which is already a diagnosis.
Artistic talent, sensitivity, play and fantasy, learning about truth and the beauty and value of life...
This is, above all, the message of Rye Island Crayons. This valuable competition should continue and not disappear. It should carry on, just like the lives of our children and the new generation continue, together with the art and culture of an intelligent and cultural society.
PhDr. Bohumír Bachratý, CSc., Chairman of the Jury, Art Historian
Images
