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Ziedonis Class visits Daugavpils

2023. gada 20. jūnijs

On 13 June, the team of Ziedonis Class – the educational direction of Imants Ziedonis Foundation Viegli – visited the 1st year students of the Daugavpils Design and Art Secondary School Saules Skola. Daugavpils is the fifth municipality, where this year a contemporary artwork will be created as part of the Ziedonis Class European Economic Area project. The creative and exploration-oriented visit was dedicated to the discussion with young people about contemporary art and culture, including workshops led by artist Zīle Ziemele and youth expert Artūrs Jenots.

In the first workshop led by Artūrs Jenots, young people exchanged opinions on perspectives of contemporary art. Artūrs Jenots employed a variety of creative improvisation techniques to discuss contemporary art and culture with the students, as well as the ways in which students would like to learn about this topic. In the discussions, the young people recognized the importance of talking about contemporary art at school and using different teaching techniques to enable the students to experience art in its multiple manifestations, for example, setting a task to visually depict a musical piece.

In the second workshop, together with the artist Zīle Ziemele, the students tried their hand at creating an art medium – the young people worked in groups and created their own art magazine. In their art magazines, the students reproduced various topics – an art museum, where they reflected their personalities, and also used the knowledge acquired during the 1st study year, when they created an advertisement for their study programme. Zīle Ziemele introduced the young people to the concept of the incipient art periodical Māxlas Žurnāls, whose chief editor is the artist herself. This weekly periodical will be released in January next year, reflecting the works and current events of Latvian contemporary art.

”It is delightful that, while visiting Daugavpils, we gained really valuable insights together with the young people! At the end of the workshop, the participants concluded that, after their experience in the workshop, they also found inspiration to create their own school periodical about current affairs, they were happy about the opportunity to work in groups and realize their creativity together. I can say that our goal has been fulfilled – in conversation with young people, their openness to artistic processes unfolded. Notably, the place in Latvia, where the today’s young people come from, does not matter – they are all creative, curious, of course, they need a bit of urging and encouragement, but I can say with assurance that our future is in safe hands,” says Elizabete Pavlovska, head of Ziedonis Class.

It is envisaged that at the end of June the city of Daugavpils will have a work of contemporary art created within the framework of the European Economic Area project. More information about the European Economic Area project “Me, A Human Being in the World”, A Tool for Fostering Contemporary Culture Processes – on the Facebook and Instagram social network pages of Ziedonis Class.

 

Imants Ziedonis Foundation Viegli , Ziedoņa klase is implementing a project “Me, A Human Being in the World”, A Tool for Fostering Contemporary Culture Processes (project No. EEZ/2021/1/28) with the support of the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism for the period 2014–2020 programme Local Development, Poverty Reduction and Cultural Cooperation, awarded under the open call Support for the Creation of Professional Art and Cultural Products for Children and Youth.

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