Opening of the Results of Creative Courses for Children
In a pre-Christmas atmosphere, the art studio on the ground floor of Mirbach Palace at the Bratislava City Gallery hosted two openings of children’s artworks created by participants who had been attending art courses since September. The courses were organized through a collaboration between the gallery and the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava.
During this semester, a group of children aged 9–11 took part in the UFO in the Gallery art course led by Dominika Kubičková and Damir Demovič. The course fostered sensitivity to art and the ability to think about and consciously work with visual elements. Conceptually, the children gradually moved from point and line to perspective. They worked with various media and techniques, explored their limits and interconnections, and discovered, for example, that it is also possible to paint with light. At times they focused more on experimentation, while at other times they reinforced and developed their existing knowledge through a more systematic approach.
Creative work took place not only in the studio but also in direct contact with exhibitions at the Bratislava City Gallery and Gallery Medium. The children also explored architecture and art in the Old Town and learned to perceive the gallery as a natural place for discovery.
The course included an open class in which parents and family members joined our shared creative process. A particularly special experience was a visit to the painting studio at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design led by Rastislav Sedlačík, where the children were able to glimpse the environment of higher art education.
A second group of children aged 12–14, led by Barbora Tribulová and Lucia Večerná, spent the entire autumn exploring the media of visual culture in the contexts of the city, galleries, and AFAD studios. They searched for suitable materials and media for working with light and time, and experimented with image reproducibility as well as storytelling through visual media.
In addition to inspiring exhibitions, the children experimented with drawing under the guidance of Rastislav Sedlačík, with light in photography led by Dominika Jackuliaková, with glass painting under the guidance of Lucia Kupcová, and with sound recording together with Tomáš Prištiak. Thanks to the courses, the children developed habits of exploring and interpreting the meanings of visual culture and came to perceive the gallery as a familiar and welcoming space for meaningful leisure time.
The art courses were part of the project Education Through the Arts of the City, supported by the budget of the Capital City of Bratislava through a grant programme for the development of sport and education in Bratislava. We sincerely thank them for their support.
