Since 1995 the »The World of Art« magazine has been encouraging young people to create and participate in international competitions, where they can compare their work to the work of children of the same age from other countries and continents.
During that period the first gallery of children's art was founded in Slovenia - The Gallery of Children’s Art Works, The Old Castle of Celje, today at new location on Krekov trg 3, Celje dedicated to young artists under the age of 20. A lot of children from different countries of the world were awarded for their art masterpieces, which encouraged them for further art creativity.

More than one hundred thousand young artists from 70 countries of the world from all the continents ( Albania, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin,Byelorussia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic,Germany, Philippines, Finland, France, Egypt, Ecuador, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Israel, Japan, Yugoslavia, South Korea, South Africa, Katar,Kazahstan, Kuwait, Latvia,China, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Hungary, Macedonia, Malassia, Malta, Marocco, Mexico, Moldavia, Holland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Senegal, Switzerland, Sweden,Turkey, Uruguay and USA )have participated in our competitions. As the result we also have the world's biggest collection of young peple's art works on the theme “The Horse”, which consists of 45 thousand art works from 55 countries of the world; the collection of art works on the theme “Still life” includes almost 30 thousand paintings from 50 countries of the world, and the collection on the theme “Castles- our cultural heritage” consists of more than 10 thousand paintings from 35 countries; and also 8.000 artworks on theme »Who am I?« from 41 countries of International Competition for year 2006.
In our archives there are also a lot of other art works on different themes and in different techniques, which came to the archive through different ways of cooperation. People have admired the awarded art works from our competitions at 137 exhibitions (48 of them were abroad in 23 countries).
Art creativity brings new challenges although the theme stays the same as for previous year.

The theme: Who am I?

Who are my people and what kind of cultural legacy have I inherited?
What do we want to preserve for our future generations? Identity of my people. Architecture, ethno tradition (tools, weapons, clothes), natural heritage (underground caves, national parks, rare flora and fauna). At the time our planet is becoming a global village, you can contribute something special to this village as a gift of your people, your nation, and you can say with proud: ”This is me, these are my people. This is a unique piece of the history of this planet.”
I would like to encourage you to visit the museums, monuments, churches, find out something about your family relics and lumber room; I am sure you will find something that deserves to be preserved for our future generations, as a memory of the time that is gone and of the artistic creativity of your nation.
So go for it! 50 best art works from each age group will be awarded with unique prizes, the best three authors from each age group will be awarded also with special gifts. Put the entries of different age groups in separate envelopes:

1st group: up to 10 years,
2nd group: from 11-15 years,
3rd group: from 16 - 20 years

All techniques on a paper are allowed. Art works should not exceed 30x42 cm.

On the reverse side of the artwork you should put the following details in capital letters and in Latin alphabet:
- name and surname of the author, date of author’s birth
- the date when the art work was created,
- name and surname of the mentor,
- the full address of the school, or author, if sent individually,
- e-mail address of the school, or author, if sent individually,
Please do not put the art works on passpartous. Art works should be sent in by December 31st, 2006, to the address:
The Gallery of Young People's Art Works, Celje
Krekov trg 3,
3000 CELJE,
SI SLOVENIA

Participants who want to come to the opening exhibition and need an entry visa for Slovenia, should contact me by e-mail, fax or letter till 20th of February 2007, so that I can send them original invitations for getting a visa on time.
Until recently we have been sending catalogues to the participants, but at least 20% of them never received them and they do not believe we had sent them either. Some addresses were perhaps not written correctly, so some catalogues were returned to the sender. More than 50% of participants never confirm receiving of the catalogue, so we are not sure whether we can send the awards to the same address.
Anyway, we want to avoid misunderstandings and unnecessary costs. If any participants don’t have internet, we will send them the competition results by fax: + 386 35 481 777

Please consider the conditions of the competition, as the jury will not appraise the works not respecting them. The received entries will not be returned to the authors, they will become part of the archive of The World of Art magazine. After appraisement it is possible to borrow the art works from the archive for school exhibitions.
May I ask you to add some table flags of your towns and states, some bank notes or coins of small face value and some used stamps of your country to the shipment of your pieces of art? Thus you will contribute to the collection of souvenirs of participating countries of our competitions, being collected for some years now.

Part of the collection can be seen on our web page. We wish you good luck and a lot of pleasure in creating.

The Gallery of Young People's Art Works Celje

Founder
MIHAILO LIŠANIN