Art Gallery from the Children of Mozyr

On this page is a very small fraction of the entries in an Art Competition organised during 1999 in the town of Mozyr, Belarus. The children vary in age from 10 - 17 years and their talents and the expertise of their teachers are a credit to the town of Mozyr and to Belarus. The talent may be natural to many children but the development of its potential takes many hours of study and dedication. Unfortunately due to the scanning facilities many of the paintings have not been shown in their full glory. Please take a stroll down the gallery and see the riches produced by the children - these wonderful children.

As I wandered around the art classes many thoughts kept drifting into my mind. How could these children produce such fine artwork ? They were just normal children of average age spending time doing what they enjoyed. Could it be that I was missing something very obvious? Was it their natural talent or the abilities of their teachers ? Or was it something else ?

It was not the first time during my stays in Belarus that I had witnessed such advancement in the arts and it certainly was not going to be my last. In many aspects much of the desire to perform at the highest of levels seemed to be part of the fabric of the town.

On other excursions to music schools, ballroom dancing and ordinary day schools similar types of learning situations were experienced. In every case the teachers seemed to get much satisfaction in witnessing their children blossom.

It was certainly not the fact that the children had more time as their normal school day was similar to Northern Ireland's - their homeworks tended to be much longer and their time spent in extra-curricular  activities could be as time extensive as 26  hours a week. What however may be the reason was their very constructive use of the time that they had available.

I spent several days in School 7 and was able to see the day to day running of a 1000 pupil school with a staff of 80 teachers : and could not help being impressed. There was an air of calmness everywhere with the children treating education as a privilege and not a right. From the youngest child to the oldest a genuine desire to learn pervaded each classroom learning activity. The younger children looked on their teachers as role models whilst many of the more senior students demonstrated true friendship with their teachers. It was common place, in between periods, to see students talking to teachers about their work. A mutual respect between both was always there. Sure there were rogues in some of the classes but never once did I see any maliciously bad behaviour. A limited administrative staff meant that the teachers, whose days were long enough already, had not the luxury of any assistance yet teachers lessons were well prepared and showed many of the most modern teaching techniques. These methods were not learned from courses but from tried and tested experiences. Facilities in the schools were limited but efficient talk and chalk techniques seemed to prove more than adequate. As a student I was instructed on questioning technique, in Mozyr, several teachers had turned it into an art form so effective with their methods.

It was interesting to hear the director of a local
manufacturing plant being concerned that none of the traditional skills or crafts should be lost to the town and with such talent around him and his plant producing traditional textiles, basket making and pottery I doubt that this will ever happen. I hope that in the years to come, when the inevitable influence of the west shatters the calmness of this society, that the people of Mozyr will be in a position to take that which is best and reject those standards and ideals that will certainly take from their society the cultural essence which it has at the present and what makes it special.

These were not the exceptions to my experiences but typified them. In the years to come I will undoubtedly relate more of the normals of this society - the panache of the children in the modern ballroom dancing, the industriousness uncovered in the craft school, the vibrancy of the musical director and her pupils - all are mirrors of what the truly cultured and valued environs should be - or at least I think so.