51st Children's October Salon - Art in Constellation

Programme:
Awards ceremony

Authors of the catalogues and the exhibition:
Milica Cukić, MA, Museum Counsellor, and Lea Zei, art pedagogue

Organizer:
Museum of Applied Art, Belgrade

Art in Constellation is the slogan of the 51^st Children’s October Salon held at the Museum of Applied Art. This topic implies that all works at this year’s exhibition are dedicated to the universe, stars, planets, heavenly bodies, as well as the preservation of our planet Earth. Earlier this year, a great scientific discovery encouraged us to turn the attention of our participants to these subjects. This was the discovery of the existence of gravitational waves, which had been predicted by Albert Einstein in his general theory of relativity, exactly a hundred years ago.

The US National Science Foundation announced on 11 February 2016 that the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) detectors discovered gravitational waves, and the news was quickly declared the discovery of the century. The observed gravitational waves were created by two black holes 1.3 billion years ago, and their existence was confirmed nowadays, which opens new possibilities in observing the universe.

In accordance with the regulations, the participants of the Children’s October Salon include young participants of ages between five and fifteen. The presented works are a selection from the creative output, the examples of which are every year submitted for the Museum’s competition. They reflect the rich teaching practice in child care institutions during the past calendar year and they pass several stages of selection. The collaboration between Museum curators and teachers, established at the beginning and during the participation at the Salon, is important for the final outcome that can be seen at the final exhibition.

On the one hand, Children’s October Salon displays works which are the result of school activities under the supervision of teachers, created during art classes, while on the other, an active educational programme and workshops take place at the Museum during the exhibition. This will be the same this year and children will create new works on the theme of stars, planets, the sun, the moon, and acquire new knowledge about them in collaboration with artists, scientists and curators.

The exhibition is competitive and the Museum’s jury awards several prizes. The prizes are awarded to children, as well as to pedagogues who have supervised their work. Also, two prizes of the Association of Applied Arts Artists and Designers of Serbia (ULUPUDS) are awarded for the best work in the area of applied arts to a child and a teacher who have made art familiar to children in the most creative way.

Milica Cukić, MA, Museum Counsellor