Belarus
The International Children Art Forum ‘Jewish Shtettle Revival’ in Belarus is taking place in 2012 for the sixth time with the support of the European Jewish Fund.
Creative young people of the age from fourteen to eighteen years old from European Jewish communities gather and travel together studying the history of the Jewish culture and art. Being inspired with the historical Jewish places that they see, they make their creative works in various trends: painting, drawing, arts and crafts, photography, fashion, texts and others.
The Project is directed at the support of the young generation of the European Jewish communities to make the first step to the study of the Jewish art, as well as to the development and improvement of their abilities.
The goal of the Project is to make contacts between young people of the European Jewish communities, their further mutual relations, including creative contacts, the development of the interest to the Jewish art and the development of their creative thinking.
The project gives a strong impetus to each of the participant’s personal development and makes it possible, using the unique training by the example of the Jewish culture and art in Belarus in the past and at present, to develop and to form the modern art in those Jewish communities which they represent.
The program includes children’s artistic plainer, exhibition of works of the plainer participants, and publishing of a booklet with works of art by the plainer participants. During the children’s Art Forum the participants will visit several towns of Belarus, such as Minsk, Gorodeia and Vitebsk and more, famous for their Jewish history and culture. The Art Forum participants will have a possibility to get acquainted with the Shtettles’ history and be inspired by atmosphere of the Jewish life for making sketches of their future works. The Art Forum participants will exchange knowledge and experience about Jewish culture and arts of their countries and participate in workshops and master classes of famous Belarusian Jewish artists. The final stage of the project is to publish an album of children’s works based on their impressions after visiting the Jewish places of Belarus.