“Art has the role in education of helping children become like themselves instead of more like everyone else.”

Sydney Gurewitz Clemens

In 2020, as a pilot-project, we have started a painting summer school for children, titled “Try art”. The project took place in a yard of our house, in a suburb near Ohrid. It lasted 8 weeks and hosted 16 children, age 7 to 12 years old. Half of these children were locals and the other half were from other towns, came to Ohrid on vacation. During the summer school, the children had an opportunity to learn the basics of painting and about works of famous artists. At the end of the project, their works were publicly exhibited at an outdoor exhibition.

This pilot project was a turning point for us, since it somehow traced the path for the future. The next year (2021), more than 30 children took part in the summer school.

Since being a part of a painting school costs and many people here can’t afford to send their children to an event like this, we put some of my paintings for sale: the goal was to provide sponsorship for children which can’t afford to pay for themselves. The paintings were available only for people from Macedonia, because we wanted to see local people involved. The response from the people was great! In just few hours, we manage to provide sponsorship for 10 children. Most of the donors were people that don’t know us personally, but they responded because they liked the idea behind the project.

At the end of the summer school, more than 80 paintings of the children were exhibited in an outdoor exhibition in the center of Ohrid. We also put children’s paintings for sale, so that provided some extra income for their families as well.