CLOSER TO THE ART

CLOSER TO THE ART 02
What is the purpose of a gallery? What are the artists engaged in and what is the meaning of it? Why are some works of art hard to understand, while the others are so simple that I could make them myself? The educational project of Bratislava City Gallery entitled CLOSER TO THE ART mediates to young people between 10 and 15 years of age the view of the art from close-up. Within this project, Bratislava City Gallery symbolically leaves its gates to bring selected works of modern and contemporary Slovak fine art from its collections, in the form of reproductions, to schools all over Slovakia.
The second year of the project is aimed at the interconnection of modern and contemporary art, with which the young people usually do not have a chance to meet, with the world around us which is reflected by the art and which enables us to understand it deeply. The project CLOSER TO THE ART offers different angles of view of the works of art and their interconnection with real life. It puts them into broader contexts (literature, history, visual and media culture, family, relations, hobbies) and shows various possibilities of perception and interpretation of contemporary art, the story of which is not always dominant and readable as it was in the past.
In the project CLOSER TO THE ART, which was implemented between January and May 2008, more than 330 primary schools, primary art schools and grammar schools from all regions of Slovakia became involved. Based on seven reproductions of works from Bratislava City Gallery collections, including information about an artist and a work of art, proposals for discussion and creative activity within different subjects, the pupils under the guidance of teachers created their own interpretations. We received results of children´s work from almost 140 schools from different regions of Slovakia. From more than 3,000 works, the commission comprising art and gallery teachers selected 31 which are displayed at the exhibition in Pálffy Palace of Bratislava City Gallery. The criteria were as follows: representation of all the interpreted works of art, of different art genres, level of creativity of an approach, and participation of schools from many regions of Slovakia. Children´s works show different approaches and possibilities of work with the work of art and its use beyond the humanistic disciplines too. As for the implementation of the project, the decisive aspect can be considered the active engagement of teachers, stimulation of creative thinking and ability of young people to create, which is in various forms necessary for every sphere of life. The joy of the process of creation itself created significant part of the project, often more important than the final work of art itself. During the project implementation, many schools visited Bratislava City Gallery or a gallery in their surroundings; the children discovered and formed their own views of the 20th century art which they subsequently presented in “school galleries“. The project CLOSER TO THE ART shows one of the forms of gallery education which focuses on the mediation of values of fine art in the galleries to different age categories in the form of experience. It introduces art as a significant part of our life which can provide us with exceptional possibilities of education, entertainment and development of creativity.
Daniela Čarná
For detailed information on the programme Art from close-up see www.umeniezblizka.gmb.sk and www.gmb.bratislava.sk.