On January 23 in the National Library “St. St. Cyril and Methodius” presented an exhibition of children’s drawings “United in Diversity” and the children’s book “Armenian Folk Tales” by Silva Nalbantian-Khacheryan.
The ‘United in Diversity’ exhibition features a selection of children’s drawings, 30 out of a total of 135, which were produced during the Class Hour activities at the National Library. Students from IV and V grades in the following schools of the Sofia municipality took part in the activity: 75. OU “Todor Kableshkov”, 76. OU “William Saroyan”, 49. OU “Benito Juarez” and 38. OU “Vasil Aprilov”. At the end of each lesson, the children had the creative task of creating their own drawings with oil pastels or watercolor paints, with which they illustrated various elements of the holidays of the Roma, Bulgarian, Armenian and Jewish ethnic groups, expressing their understanding of the message “united in diversity”. Within the next 2 months, the exhibition will be shown in the schools of the children – authors of the drawings, places visited by representatives of the three ethnic groups (Roma, Jews and Armenians), as well as in the People’s Community Center “Sun-1879” in the city of Ikhtiman (partner on the project “Unity in difference”).
Iveta Rasheva, an educational expert on the project, expressed her delight at the curiosity and active participation of the children during the classes, as well as their creativity in the process of creating the drawings. Certificates and gifts from the management of the National Library were presented by Valentina Aksentieva, the project manager, to Mrs. Yanitsa Mileva, director of the 49th “Benito Juarez” Primary School and Mrs. Radostina Vlaikova, a teacher from the 38th “Vasil Aprilov” Primary School .
Moderator Yanitsa Radeva presented the book “Armenian Folk Tales” – a valuable contribution to the culture and traditions of the Armenian community. The book includes 26 fairy tales – everyday and magical with a number of characters, helpers and trials. Iveta Rasheva, who read a selected excerpt from a fairy tale about the magician Ohai and the king’s daughter, took us into the fairy-tale world, the magic and sorcery hidden between the pages.
The author of the book, Silva Nalbantyan-Khacheryan, talked about her work on finding and collecting the fairy tales and translating them from Armenian to Bulgarian. Special attention was paid to the message carried by the images on the book cover. The pomegranate symbolizes the cohesion and unity, and the hands – the industriousness of the Armenian people. All 45 illustrations for the book were made by Lucia Medzikyan. This is the first book in Bulgaria that is entirely illustrated with colored pens.
The “Unity in Difference” project seeks to contribute to social cohesion between the ethnic groups in Bulgaria on the basis of inter-ethnic cultural cohesion. More information about the events and activities that are organized under the project can be found on social media and the website of the National Library: www.nationallibrary.bg, as well as on the website of the project: www.united-diversity.eu.
Photographer: Stefan Rangelov
The gallery with all the drawings from the exhibition can be viewed here.
Gallery with the boards in the exhibition can be downloaded here.
The event is part of the “United in Diversity” project, implemented with the support of the EEA Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism in Bulgaria.