As every year, secondary schools from 34 municipalities have eagerly expected the competition. Some of these schools have already built quite a track record in participating, while the others are rapidly catching up – the number of schools taking part and submitted artworks is ever-rising, reaching a record 30 schools this year.
The competition has been established as a channel through which European PROGRES engages youth from the Programme area to pursue their artistic tendencies but, more importantly, to expand their knowledge on important topics – ones that affect their everyday lives.
Having recognised youth as one of the key factors in Serbia’s accession to the European Union (EU) – both as future decision-makers and as the ones potentially benefiting the most from this process – this year European PROGRES strived to facilitate learning and knowledge-sharing on relevant EU-related topics.
To this end, the Programme interlinked the annual art competition with an existing educational tool – the “Europe Diary” – a manual for high-schools, developed by the European Commission in order to assist teaching about the EU.
Thus, this year’s competition theme – “Europe: A Wise Choice” – challenged students to inform themselves better on the European Union and the process of Serbia’s accession, as well as on its impact and benefits for all citizens of Serbia, especially the youth. As a result, the engaged youth recognised the opportunities that the European Union and the process of integration could provide for them, individually and as a part of a wider community, and depicted these ideas in their artworks.
Katarina Mihajlović from the School for Textile and Design from Leskovac was awarded the first prize for her artwork on environmental protection and potential use of waste composites for fuel. Sandra Grbić from Nova Varoš and Milan Veličković from Surdulica were awarded the second and third prize for artworks dedicated to border-free travel and wider market access to products from Serbia. Jana Mihajlović, Anica Petrović and Milena Filić from Leskovac, Kristina Jović from Aleksinac, Lisina Dulaj from Bujanovac, Nikola Nikolov and Milan Todorović from Surdulica, Luka Bošković from Raška and Sadmir Hamidović from Sjenica were also awarded for their works that covered reoccurring topics of non-discrimination, nurturing cultural diversities, further education, protecting agriculture and promoting Serbian products on the European market.
Other than beautiful artworks, this year’s competition proved that, if given access to comprehensive, objective and relevant facts, the youth are more than capable of independently recognising the positive aspects of the EU integrations and identifying themselves with this process, as its important stakeholders, participants and, most importantly, initiators of change.
