Activities
Gračanica- Notre Dame
The Summer Art Workshop Gračanica - Notre Dame was held at the Art Gallery “Nadežda Petrović“ on 30 July 2019. Having accentuated these two buildings in particular, the workshop suggested the value of the entire world cultural heritage, that is unfortunately often threatened throughout history by the peril of war, neglect, natural disasters and other circumstances. This workshop gave the children a close encounter with the original Nadežda Petrović’s painting - Gračanica from 1913 as well as with the Božidar Prodanović’s painting – Notre Dame Cathedral from 1953. The workshops were intended for both children and adults, but the most of the visitors and participants were children between 5 and 12 years of age. The motive for this and few others workshops was giving the support to Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris that was destroyed in a fire, so the motive for painting was this famous cathedral along with its equivalent, the Gračanica monastery, the pearl of Medieval Serbian architecture. Around forty visitors participated in this workshop. The expert guidance was held by the gallery curator Dragana Božović whereas the workshop was coordinated by the painter Ivana Knežević.
CREATIVE BURROW in the park
Besides attending lessons at CREATIVE BURROW and work in the very studio, the children often go out in nature. As part of the workshop, the little creatives spend a lot of time in the nearby park, where they enjoy with all their senses the greenery of trees, the variety of visitors, a sunny day and the murmur of water, they observe and perceive the world around them. They draw and paint on the spot, but they also collect material from nature out of which they can make toys and usable items. In this way they increase their environmental awareness and their respect for nature, they breathe fresh air, play, talk about colours, textures, line and light, how healthy it is to be active and to respect nature. Through a conversation and the examples in the field, they expand the awareness of the fact that we all are a part of a big organism that makes part of and makes changes in an ecosystem. They get acquainted with a vast variety of plants, they run, hide and jump.
Creative children at the Art Gallery Nadežda Petrović
The members of CREATIVE BURROW and the fellow citizens inspired by an exhibition at the Art Gallery “Nadežda Petrović“ made their little artworks that revealed the paintings’ stories. The exhibition setting was named PAINTINGS AND THEIR SECRETS and it’s hosted Ivana Knežević and her little artists two times already. One workshop was held in the beautiful garden of the gallery. The children and their parents drew and made some new paintings and finished some in advance printed segments of the great masters’ paintings. The creative children answered, helped by their imagination, the question what thing could be hidden in a given painting, and they got acquainted, through the expert guidance of the exhibition curator Daniljel Mikić, with the original artworks exhibited in the gallery. This wonderful mass gathering happened on a beautiful sunny day so, as a consequence, the used colours were shining with happiness and positive energy. The second workshop was held in the gallery, but this time the techniques were different. The participants dealt with collage and used dry colours to finish the work. Both workshops were exceptionally attended.
Kindergarten wall painting (2018)
In mid-2018, to the author's great pleasure, an invitation arrived from the owner of a kindergarten to revive and paint the interior of a big vintage house where a day care centre for the youngest was about to be opened. The space itself is a renovated house from the middle of the 20th century. It was in a good condition but required a special decoration and some authentic furniture. The inspiration was there, a meadow scene appeared on the main wall of the living room. In the big shade of an oak that is stretching across the ceiling in stucco relief, a small family of owls is also depicted. A variety of bugs and birds enrich the meadow and the sunny day while on the opposite end of the wall stand some sunflowers with their occupants, grasshoppers and ants. The meadow is richly depicted, there are lots of medicinal herbs, ferns and mushrooms. The insects are stylized and illustrated in a way to give space to the teachers to tell a toddler each time new story supported by a picture from that wall. The little eyes of all bugs are two-dimensional and bulging so the children can touch them.
The young future journalists’ visit
The attendees of the School of Journalism for Children and Young, a step towards the competencies for contemporary society, visited the CREATIVE BURROW’s venue and with their mentor Nataša Turuntaš and our host Ivan Knežević dealt and became acquainted with the creative process of making an art work and of getting inspiration in general. The young future journalists talked about fine arts, choosing of a profession, creativity, initiative, but also about society, nobility, feelings, differences and feelings of those children that are victims of social violence. The whole visit was inspired by the personal experiences of the host Ivana Knežević on one side and the author of the collection of stories about peer violence Slađana Parezanović on the other side, whose stories are about her fictional, but possibly real characters, the peers of our young journalists, and their problems. The task for the young journalists was to write a story and record the conversation with the painter, but also to be creative and give painting a try, inspired by this theme.
Presentation of the City of Čačak at the Belgrade Tourism Fair (2020)
The artwork of Ivana Knežević, a prominent artist from Čačak, was also introduced at the stand of Western Serbia at the Belgrade Tourism Fair in February 2020 where she was present in person. On that occasion, she was depicting symbols of Čačak on pendants righ there at the stand and she was giving them away to the passers-by and visitors of the stand. Ivana was also wearing the dress that she had painted by hand. It’s got portraits of some famous people from Čačak – the painter Nadežda Pertović, the poet Vladislav Petković Dis, the duke Stepa Stepanović, the musicians Bora Đorđević and Radomir Mihailović Točak, the actress Sonja Savić - and the images of some tourist attractions of the city of Čačak and its surroundings. An exceptional attendance at the stand attracted the expert public’s attention. The fusion of a positive energy and the exciting destinations of Čačak and its surroundings attracted visitors of the fair, among which Ivana drew the children’s attention in particular.
Painting work on the interior
at Start up Centre Čačak and at its conference
room
This project dates back to 2019 and it represents a solution in both design and painting, but also a distinctive technical and decorative solution (sgraffito and mosaic techniques combined together) for the relax zone in the Start up Centre venue in Čačak. Ivana Knežević has made an absolute innovation in wall painting by combining mural technique and stacking of mosaic mirror tiles. The author's already recognizable colours filled the space with warmth and positive energy which was her goal in the first place. The stylized spheres represent the ideas that will be born and are being born in start-up communities and their connection and complimentarity that often appears while experiences and ideas are being exchanged. The dimensions of the wall are 4m x 9m and there is an electric cabinet on it. The cabinet sticks out from the wall so it was necessary to hide it and include it in the designer’s solution. Another task was to relate the wall decoration with furniture. The author dealt, also with great success, with the colour chalange of the relief on the wall of the Start up Centre conference room.