CLOSER TO THE ART

Curator: Daniela Čarná
Can be learning about and discovering art an adventure and fun? An educational project with the same name mediates art from close-up in a playful form to young people between 10 – 15 years of age. The City Gallery of Bratislava in that project symbolically steps out from its gates to bring straight into the schools Slovak fine art’s modern and contemporary artworks in the form of reproductions of works of art from the exposition of the art of the 20th century (100 Years of Reality) by Ľudovít Fulla, Cyprián Majerník, Ján Mathé, Július Koller, Igor Kalný, Roman Ondák and Dorota Sadovská. The aim of the project is to interconnect modern and contemporary art, which young people usually do not have chance to meet regularly, with the actual world around us which is reflected by that art and it enables us to understand it deeper.
In the project CLOSER TO THE ART, which took place from the end of March until the end of June 2006, more than 330 primary schools, primary art schools and eight-years high-schools from the whole of Slovakia took part. On the base of seven sent reproductions size A4, containing information about the author and the artwork, proposals for discussions and creative activities the pupils under the leadership of teachers were creating their own interpretations in the frame of different humanity subjects. Their results were sent to us from more than 100 schools from different regions of Slovakia. From more than 2000 works a commission of art and gallery teachers chose 27 which are presented at the exhibition in the Pálffy’s Palace of the City Gallery of Bratislava. Artworks in the catalogue and special web page www.umeniezblizka.gmb.sk will enable a little wider overview of children’s interpretations.
The children’s works can be divided in a simple way into two categories: works sourcing from the interpreted artwork which keep the outer connection with it and those ones which are freely inspired by it. They show different approaches and possibilities of work with an art piece and possibilities of its use not only within the frame of the art lectures but also within subjects like Slovak, history, ethics or religion. For the realisation of the project itself was decisive active input of the teachers and support of the creative thinking of young people and their ability to create which is in different forms needed for every sphere of life. The joy from the creative process itself was the main part of the project; many times it was more important than the resulting artwork itself. During the project more of the schools visited the City Gallery of Bratislava or a gallery in their surroundings; they discussed, discovered and created their own views on art of the 20th century which they presented in the “galleries in the schools”.
The project CLOSER TO THE ART shows one of the forms of gallery education, which concentrates on mediation of art in the galleries and museums to different age categories in form of experience. It introduces art as an important part of our life which can offer unexpected possibilities of education, fun and creative activities.
Daniela Čarná
The project was supported by:
Central – European Foundation Slovnaft, Member of the MOL Group
Realised as a part of the project “Closer to the Museum” with financial support of the Ministry of Culture of SR