52nd Children’s October Salon

Opening ceremony: Satrurday, 30 September 2017, 12:00, MAA

Programme: Awards ceremony

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

Organizer: Museum of Applied Art, Belgrade

Children’s October Salon is the oldest regular and continual Museum of Applied Art’s manifestation, whose basic aim and essence, from the very foundation on, have been the development of original children’s experiences in cognitive as much as in creative senses.

Music Is the Best is the slogan under which the 52^nd Children’s October Salon of Museum of Applied Art is taking place during the month of October 2017. Music is an important part of our life, it makes it more beautiful, more pleasant, more spiritual. From the earliest age, even during the prenatal period as well as they say, music has a direct influence our moods, thoughts, and feelings. It is there at public concerts, at celebrations, during certain events, but if gives a special feeling when we listen to it all alone. Music has a unique dimension for those who play instruments or are gifted with singing voices, or with capacity to compose. Music is an important factor for recognition in the communication with other people, because „you are the music you listen to“. This is why our suggestion to pedagogues was to travel through the music time machine together with children, and to respond to this subject by listening to various music forms and genres.

According to its propositions, this manifestation embraces the widest population of youngsters aged from five to fifteen. Each year, children create works at the subject given by a museum curator. The works shown in the exhibitions represent a selection from a large production. These works represent a reflection of the rich pedagogical practice cherished in children’s institutions and they had been subjected to several phases of the selection process. This year, 86 institutions applied to the open competition of the 52^nd Children’s October Salon (schools, kindergartens, private art studios) with 1500 works. The selection committee: Dr Sanja Filipović, Professor of Methodology of Art Education, Vesna Janjević Popović, psychologist, Lidija Seničar, Art Historian, and Lea Zei, art pedagogue, chose 300 works for the display. The authenticity of children’s approach in creation of an image or an art object has been especially accentuated, taking into consideration the richness and variety of techniques of applied arts, such as ceramics, drawing, textile, photography, combined techniques. Beside conventional techniques, there were also used the special ones suited for children’s age, such as collage and paper mache.

On the one hand, the exhibition features the works that are results of activities administered at schools and in art studios, under jurisdiction of teachers in art classes, but on the other hand, during the exhibition, there is an active educative, workshop-like, programme that is organized at the museum, the very venue of the shoe. The exhibition is selected, with prizes awarded to both children and pedagogues. The Museum publishes a catalogue in Serbian and English, in which there are the reproductions of all of the selected works, and it also contains texts written by professionals. Each participant is granted a free copy.

Milica Cukić, MA, Museum Adviser