Danube Art Master 2019
Jointly organised by the Global Water Partnership Central and Eastern Europe (GWP CEE) and the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), this competition encourages children to have a closer look at their local river, to reflect on what the environment means to them, and to create original artworks to celebrate the region.
Children from all schools, NGOs, clubs, day care centres or associations for children in the Danube Basin are invited to create a piece of art and take part in the Danube Art Master competition, which has been uniting thousands of children throughout the Danube River Basin since 2004. The competition doesn’t only bring children of the Danube region together, but also educates them about the river’s intrinsic value and importance, and gives them a voice to comment on the future of their environment.
Competition Details
Participants must be between 6 and 18 years old, and from a country in the Danube Basin (Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine). The competition exists at two levels: national and international. Once selected at national level, national winners will then compete at the international level. The participants are encouraged to check the submission deadline with their national organiser.
Categories: artwork, video, poem, song or performance
Children should go to a river-bank (ideally on the Danube or a Danube tributary) and create their environmental art, record a song, record a video, or hold a performance. After creating their artwork, the children or teachers should take a colour photo or video of the artwork and send it to national organiser.
Specifications
Artworks should be created with natural materials found by the river. Drawings and paintings are not accepted. The minimum size of the digital photos is 150 DPI.
- Videos should be no longer than 1 minute, recorded by camera or phone. Animations will not be accepted.
- Songs should be no longer than 1 minute and 30 seconds and recorded on video.
- Poems should be no longer than 1 A4 page and written in English.
- Performances should be no longer than 5 minutes and recorded on video.
- All photos and videos should be sent to the national organizers.
Winner selection
National level
At the national level, the national organisers will judge the different forms of art. National prizes vary from country to country, and participants are encouraged to contact their country’s organiser for details. The top 10 national artworks will be posted on the official Instagram account of the competition.
International level
At the international level, two of the categories - the national winners’ artworks and videos, will be judged by an international jury, which is composed of the national representatives of all ICPDR countries. For the judging, text or other hints as to the national artwork’s nation of origin will be redacted to facilitate neutral assessment. The judges’ decision is final, and the creator(s) of the chosen artwork will be crowned ‘Danube Art Master’.
Employees and officers of GWP CEE and ICPDR, as well as the immediate family (defined as parents, spouse, children, siblings and grandparents) are not eligible to take part in the competition. Participation in the competition constitutes the winner’s consent for their name and contribution picture to be made public in publications of GWP CEE and the ICPDR. GWP CEE and ICPDR reserve the right to use the photographs/videos taken without the expressed written permission of those included within the photographs/videos.
Social media
In addition to the Danube Art Master Facebook page, this year’s Danube Art Master will open an Instagram page to attract more children from the Danube region. Apart from the main competition, children will also be encouraged to post their art on the related to the Danube River Basin topics on Instagram using a hashtag #DanubeArtMaster2019. There will be a special prize for the Most Liked artwork and video on Danube Art Master’s Instagram page. Only the artworks and videos submitted officially by the national organisers can compete for the Most Liked prize.
Danube Art Master 2018: A Report
Moldova was the winner of the Danube Art Master Competition 2018
VIENNA, 29 October 2018 -- The winner of the ‘International Danube Art Master 2018’ competition was 17-year-old Ion Zatic of Moldova, announced Susanne Brandstetter, Chairperson of the Public Participation Expert Group of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR). The Public Participation Expert Group is responsible for promoting the Danube Art Master initiative in the Danube River Basin.
”Everything that man touched, has been transformed into a closed ecosystem!” is the name of the winning artwork. Its creator, Ion Zatic, is a student at the Corjova School, Moldova. Concerned about the damage to natural habitats caused by industrialization and urbanization, he appeals to put more efforts into to preserving the natural ecosystems instead of creating artificial ones.
Category: Artwork
The Danube Art Master winner is selected by 13 countries, which share the Danube River Basin, including Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. The competition is open to all children and schools across the 14 countries that make up the Danube River Basin. Around 1109 children from 142 schools participated, submitting about 401 artworks and 60 videos including team submissions.
Second and third places went to 13-year-old Anais König of Austria for her project, “Inspired by the Danube”, and Sara Đuka, Tamara Petrović and Marija Rašković from Prva Beogradska Gimnazija, Belgrade, Serbia for their project titled “Play by the Danube”. Anais König is a student at the Lycée Français in Vienna. Her artwork shares her unique perspective as a photographer. “Play by the Danube” represents a mixture of different materials - waste, beautiful flowers, bird feathers and was inspired by the contrast of the Zemun Quay on the Danube in Belgrade, where the artwork was created.
Category: Video
In the video category, a group from Slovakia won with the short video “We are Danube” created by Katarína Kováčová, Agáta Klimešová, Denis Gerža and Linda Várošová from the Design School in Bratislava. Their message is that the Danube is an important natural habitat for many animals, plays a significant role in people’s lives and creates a strong bond among the countries that share the Danube, a bond that people should appreciate and cherish.
Second place in the video category was awarded to a group of 8th and 9th grade students from Bulgaria for “Cleaning and restocking with baby trouts of Bely Vit river for a healthier Danube”. The creators are Brian Mikov, Victorya Petrova, Borislav Christov, Ralitsa Boteva, Eleonora Lyubomirova, Ivan Ivanov, Ralitsa Toneva, Kalinna Naidenova, Radosvetta Krassimirova, Ralitsa Stoyanova, Andrea Raikova, Tsarinna Nickolova, Victor Nickolaev, Nickol Atanassova from the Eco-club “Green Ideas for Tourism” at Georgi Benkovsky Comprehensive school in Teteven.
Third place was awarded to Germany. A team of international School exchange students from Anton-Bruckner-Gymnasium in Straubing, Germany and Brucknergymnasium Wels, Austria won for their video, “Donauforscher”, which deals with the subject of water pollution by microplastics.
The Competition
On International Danube Day on 29 June 2018, the “International Danube Art Master 2018” competition was announced. The theme of the competition was based on the motto of the year’s Danube Day – “Get active for a healthier Danube” - the second of the three pillars of the Danube Declaration 2016, advocating cleaner, healthier, safer waters for everyone to enjoy.
The competition encourages children to think about the value and importance of their local rivers, environments and the Danube River Basin specifically. Entrants must use materials from those environments to create artworks that present the water situation of their respective countries.
The competition was jointly organized by the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) and the Global Water Partnership Central and Eastern Europe (GWP CEE), an ICPDR observer organisation and one of the largest networks focusing on water in the world.
“Danube Art Master 2018 witnessed the participation of 13 countries sharing the Danube River Basin. This competition is a golden opportunity for children and teenagers to demonstrate their deep connection with the Danube and a reminder for us adults of our duty to protect it for generations to come” said ICPDR Executive Secretary Ivan Zavadsky about the competition.
16 Years of Danube Art Master in 14 countries
Each year, the Danube Art Master contest challenges children living in the Danube Basin to create sustainable works of art dedicated to their rivers. New in 2017 was a special category for young film-makers: create a 1 minute video capturing your hopes and dreams for your river. National Art Masters were selected in each country, and then went through to the international round of the competition in Vienna.
Video showcasing the Danube Art Master at the 2016 ICPDR Ministerial Meeting.
Jointly overseen by the Global Water Partnership Central and Eastern Europe (GWP CEE) and the ICPDR, this ambitious contest encourages children to visit their local rivers and create art reflecting what the Danube means to them. By entering the competition, they not only have a great time making their creations but are motivated to consider the future of the rivers and the people and wildlife that rely on them. The result is a visual representation of young people's vision for the Danube Basin.
Running since 2004, the competition has resulted in tens of thousands of artworks lining rivers across all 14 countries. Each creation is an expression of children's passion for their local river: whether demonstrating their Danube solidarity, environmental concern, hopes for the future, or the simple pleasures to be had from spending time near rivers.
Organisers of the international competition took a break in 2016 to focus efforts on relaunching the contest in 2017. Nonetheless, Slovenia, Serbia and Moldova ran national rounds: see Review 2016.
2015 saw Iman Maljić from Bosnia-Herzegovina scoop the International Danube Art Master crown. Over 1300 children from 11 countries rose to the 2015 challenge to design gowns fit for a Grand Danube Masquerade, made only from materials found by their rivers. To browse more of the 600 marvellous creations, see Flickr and Facebook.
Browse the gallery below to get a taste of how the Danube rivers have inspired the region's children. For further information on the competition see Facebook and view previous years' entries on Flickr 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.
