First International Contest of Amber Artworks "Alatyr – 2005"

In the year of the 750th jubilee of Kaliningrad and on the threshold of celebration of the 60th anniversary of the region the Amber Museum initiated the project of an International Contest of Amber Goods. "The Amber Contest" in the "Amber region" is an organic and extremely prospective undertaking both for the region and the whole of the amber craft that is expected to live long and that is going to be conducted every two years.

The Contest of 2005 is conducted in the following categories:

The contestants and their articles were chosen by a curator in each country. The quota for the participation in the Contest for each country was set as not more than 12 artists. Kaliningrad is a large and the only center of artistic amber treatment in Russia, that is why the Organizing Committee of the Contest considered it possible to represent it singly.

According to the Contest conditions all the articles are supposed to contain amber as a primary material that could be combined with the others. It is also allowed to use both natural and pressed amber, as well as amber with inclusions.

 

The artworks made in 2004 – 2005 are accepted.

 

Amateur artists may participate in the contest along with professionals. The jury accepts for consideration all the submitted works without any restrictions. The participant has the right to submit not more than two articles in each category. An ensemble making up a single whole is considered as one artwork.

 

The Contest is estimated by an international jury that comprises of representatives of all the participating countries.

 

The Organizing Committee has instituted one main prize, four titles of laureates, a number of special jury’s awards.

 

Besides the prizes of the Organizing Committee that are awarded based on the decision of the professional jury, special prizes are also going to be instituted. The names, content, criteria of estimation and amount of special prizes are determined by the originators in coordination with the Organizing Committee of the exhibition.

 

A viewer’s choice award has also been established, and the recipient will be determined by votes of the exhibition viewers at the end of its work.

 

We emphasize educational activities that are intended for widening possibilities and improvement of education of the young generation of amber artists. Each jury member, curator, participant of the conference and of the contest conducts master classes or gives a lecture for the students of the Department of artistic amber treatment of the vocational art lyceum № 10.

 

The seriousness of the approach to the issues of education is marked by the fact of conducting within the contest programme of an international conference "Continuity of tradition of artistic amber treatment. The issues of specialist training". The conference materials have been published as collected articles.

 

The Amber Museum is positioning itself, on the one hand, as a center of communications for studying and promotion of "the sun stone", claiming to occupy a special place within Russian and international contexts. On the other hand, using specific museum techniques, it has assumed a commitment of active participation in the current processes of development of the contemporary jewellery design and stone-cutting art in the Kaliningrad region. The Museum is favoring the use of the subject "Amber" in all the variety of its meanings and senses in the other kinds of contemporary art, fiction, the humanities.

 

Our multi-ethnic region, the beyond-the-border territory of Russia located in the center of Europe, at the same time being a variation of the marginal culture is an ideal place for creating the situation of the mutual enrichment of cultures. We are making an attempt to take the opportunity given by the place and time (geography and history) to acquaint the Kaliningradians with aesthetic systems and individual practices of artists from different countries in their working with the sun stone.

 

We are giving an opportunity to get acquainted with the artworks of Russian and foreign artists bearing in mind both practical and educational aims – to raise a general level of the regional culture in the sphere of decorative and applied art. We are convinced that the Kaliningradians, the most experienced in Russia connoisseurs of the Baltic gem, will take an interest in the programme of the Contest events proposed by the Amber Museum.

 

I would like to thank the organizers and the participants of the Contest.