Robert and Nataliya Brovdi: “We are sure, that our native land has all prerequisites to become one of the centres of art and cultural life of Ukraine”

19

April

2017

How and when the idea of the contest “Silver Easel” was born?

R.B.: The idea of the contest was born quite spontaneously at the end of September 2016. At that time, in Uzhhorod under the Transcarpathian Academy of Arts, where I am a member of the Supervisory Board, there were preparations for the annual contest in the format of ordinary student competitions. Having decided to assist in the holding of event, my wife Nataliya, colleagues from the Supervisory Board of the Academy and I saw the possibility and advisability to hold a contest of completely different level and content. In the end, starting with the title and ending with the programme content, it was completely new creative contest for students with high-quality organizational maintenance, extensive media coverage, nominations, awards, prizes, publication of the art catalogue. Just within three weeks our team together with the Transcarpathian Academy of Arts held all the preparatory work and on October 18th, 2016 “Silver Easel” accepted students from all over Ukraine.

How successful and representative was the first contest?

N.B.: The first contest brought together 44 students from 22 higher educational institutions of 13 regions of Ukraine. Together with the students there came the lecturers of many universities. The event was very dynamic and intense. In addition to the obligatory stages: “Cityscape”, “Landscape”, and “Portrait” it was organized cultural and educational programmes, tours, presentations for the public and mass media. We did everything necessary for the contestants not to be distracted from painting, creative exchange, and communication. And, judging by all the feedbacks we received during the contest and upon its results, “Silver Easel” was held successful. For its educational and academic level, and for the level of art figures (I note that the jury included three academicians, five People’s Artists of Ukraine, three laureates of the National Prize named after T. Shevchenko), the contest received high evaluations and reviews.

What makes such events special and relevant, what do they bring to the creative young people?

R.B.: For creative young people, and in our case we are talking about future professional artists and designers, it is, first of all, the ability to show and prove themselves, to compare their skills with peers and colleagues from other universities, to gain new experience and knowledge. This is also the opportunity to meet famous artists, gallery owners, art critics, learn something valuable and useful to get an objective and competent assessment of their works. Contests are always a challenge for a creative person, they motivate, give impetus to the development.

Prize fund at the contest is also, probably, a good incentive for the creative competition, isn’t it?

R.B.: Believe me, this is not the most important thing. It is more important that the contest brought together the best of the best people, victory in the contest was prestigious and opened the way to real, successful career in art. For this purpose, young artists need a platform to be seen by gallery owners, art dealers, art critics, and specialized media. For their first art works to be published in the catalogue. For them to receive grants for educational programmes and master classes, invitations to exhibitions and auctions as winning awards. This is the very direction, we want to move and we are already moving, shaping and developing the contest concept.

What is going to be different in the second “Silver Easel”, what will remain the same?

N.B.: The second contest will be held from 25 to 29 April, during the period of cherry blossoms and magnolias flowering, which became a remarkable sight of the city. Thus, after the impressive golden Carpathian autumn, this time the contestants will see a flourishing spring city.

This time we have also changed the format for participants’ selection. If in 2016 the educational institutions applied the participants by themselves, now we launched open and competitive system of selection. Each student of 2-6 years of art profiles of the higher educational institutions of III-IV accreditation levels personally registers the application along with the portfolio of his works on the official website of the contest. Further, the portfolio of applicants is given a numeric code and without specifying any information submitted for review of independent Expert Council. Each member of the Expert Council defines the best ones in his opinion, sums up the overall rating, and determines the future contestants.

Another important change will be within the categories. To the previous categories “Cityscape” and “Portrait”, we have added a new one – “Improvisation”. It involves a free theme, genre, technique and will allow, in our opinion, to deeper reveal personality and creativity of the contestants. However, it will, probably, add intrigue and complicate the jury job.

Unchanged are, the same as in the first contest, an interesting cultural programme, all kinds of surprises, extraordinary creative atmosphere and vivid competition of young talents!

It seems the contest attracted attention at the national level, which is confirmed by the famous names among the official partners.

R.B.: That’s true. The contest was supported by the leading institutions and figures of the modern art market of Ukraine, which agreed to become its partners. This is the auction house “Golden Section” and its co-founders Mykhailo and Oleksii Vasylenko; gallery of Maksym and Yuliia Voloshyn – Voloshyn Gallery; expert on the issues of contemporary art and art-dealer Igor Abramovych; Kostiantyn Kozhemiako and his Fund for Cultural Initiatives ArtHuss; Sky Art Foundation, and others. Their presence is an additional incentive for participants. Moreover, the partners of the contest have the opportunity regardless of the official nominations to determine the best, in their opinion, works and reward the authors with special prizes.

How great is the interest in the contest from the students? What is the dynamics of applications? How many participants are expected for “Silver Easel 2017”?

N.B.: Interest is very great. For the first three weeks since the announcement of the preliminary selection we received more than 250 applications. It is about 20 educational institutions from Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Poltava, Dnipro, Chernivtsi, Lutsk, and other cities. Taking into account format and level of the contest, we expect for 50 participants. On this basis, it is already possible to say that in the preliminary selection per one place in the finals there will be at least 5-6 applicants.

Who will evaluate the works of applicants?

R.B.: As it was last year, the jury will include the brightest and most influential representatives of the art world – artists, lecturers, art critics. Namely, it will be an academician Andrii Chebykin, famous modern artists Anatolii Kryvolap and Tiberiy Szilvashi, master of Ukrainian painting Volodymyr Mykyta, famous art critic Halyna Skliarenko. These people can not only objectively assess the work of the contestants, but also much to teach, to share their creative experience. It is very important for the continuity of generations and formation of future artists.

How do you plan to develop the contest in future?

N.B.: We consider various options for the contest development. The neighbouring countries – Slovakia, Hungary, Romania have already showed interest in the contest. In addition, we receive a lot of requests from the young people who are not students or does not meet the criteria for speciality and level of accreditation. Therefore, it is possible that in the near future “Silver Easel” will turn into the open international contest. And, since it is planned to hold this event twice a year, it will be possible to alternate student “Silver Easel” with the contest for young artists or photo contest.

Who finances the contest holding?

R.B.: To promote and support projects in the fields of art and culture, Nataliya and I established a family foundation Brovdi Art. And, the contest, as one of these events, is financed by the foundation and our personal funds.

Apparently, “Silver Easel”, like other your projects will be permanently held in Uzhhorod? What this is about?

R.B.: Uzhhorod is our hometown, where we grew up, got married, gave birth to our children. It is spiritually European centre of cultural and public life of Transcarpathia - a unique region of Ukraine, which gave the world brilliant and original school of painting. This year it is the 90th anniversary since in 1927 two famous artists – Yosyp Bokshai and Adalbert Erdeli established in Uzhhorod public school of painting, which marked the beginning of the legendary Transcarpathian school of painting and brought up a pleiad of famous artists, sculptors, figures of applied and decorative arts. Thus, in Transcarpathia we have a very rich art heritage of national and even international value, which has to be studied for promotion and development. We are sure that our native land has all prerequisites to be one of the centres of art and cultural life of Ukraine. Therefore, it is there where we concentrate and plan to develop our key projects.

Tell us about the goals of Brovdi Art?

R.B.: The first goal, as already noted, is preservation and promotion of the cultural heritage of Transcarpathia. We are talking about collecting and organizing of all available information (including complete resources of replicas and original works of art), its presenting in the accessible form and in different languages. For this purpose, we create a media package including specialized web-portal, thematic publication series, TV and video products. The second goal is creation and development of modern cultural infrastructure which meet the needs of the modern person and the development level of information technologies. The third goal is support of artists and young talents. And, the fourth goal is attraction of public attention to the Ukrainian art within the country and abroad.

What is the activities of Brovdi Art, except for contest holding? Tell something about future projects?

R.B.: Student contest is only the first step and one of the components of a large project. We are talking about creating of the contemporary art space in Uzhhorod, the part of which will be: a museum, exhibition galleries, an art club for educational and cultural events (lectures, seminars, master classes, recitals, chamber music performances), art and restoration studios, the author's children's school of arts, art radio, and others. At the stationary and transformable exhibition space there will be exhibited both the representatives of the Transcarpathian school of painting and contemporary artists from all over Ukraine. We will also invite foreign authors. We have plans, for example, to exchange art collections with our and other Ukrainian and foreign galleries. One of the interesting objects is a “Gallery of one painter”, where young authors from all over Ukraine will have the opportunity to exhibit their works under the principle “one artist – one week – one exhibition”. Within the week, an artist will have the opportunity to present his works, to communicate with the press and public, to hold a master class and to work creatively on plein air.

19.04.2017
ArtsLooker