"Alatyr 2019". Awarding Ceremony

On 28 June an official ceremony of awarding laureates and diploma winners at the biennial "Alatyr 2019" took place in the outer yard of the Amber Museum.

The first welcoming words addressed to the jurors, curators, artists, and guests of the night were said by the Head of the Department for Development of Culture at the Ministry for Culture and Tourism of Kaliningrad region Marina Sergeeva. She noted that according to the number of biennial participants (this year there are over 100), interest of craftsmen from different countries to amber is just growing, and such projects as "Alatyr" let residents and guests of Kaliningrad region get acquainted with various approaches to Baltic amber.

Arkadii Riabichenko, attaché at the Kaliningrad office of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, mentioned in his welcoming speech the wider geography of the participating countries at "Alatyr". In 2019 artists from China,Estonia, Japan and Finland have presented their works for the first time.

Traditionally countries that have a historical connection with the art of the sun stone treatment participate in the biennial. Cultural attaché at the Consulate General of the republic of Lithuania Raminta Gecevičienė reminded guests of the ceremony of the old traditions of working with amber by Lithuania artists.

The official ceremony was adorned by shows of the works by Kaliningrad jewellers Olga Oblezina and Miroslava Frolkova (Mira Ra) involving models from the Eva Fashion Agency.

In the concluding part of the night the jury chair of the biennial "Alatyr", artist, professor, teacher of design at Łódź University of Technology (Poland), honoured worker of culture of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Szadkowski gave diplomas and presents to the winners of the competition. Grand Prix winner of the Eighth International Biennial of Amber Artworks  is Dovilė​ Zidialene from Vilnius (Lithuania).

Within "Alatyr" there was also an international conference "Vocational training of jewellers in educational systems of different countries", a press conference for representatives of the  sectoral mass media and regional press, as well as an educational programme with master classes by Galina Sharonova, Antti Nieminen, Marite Dominaite, and Aleksander Krylov for students of the College of Entrepreneurship (earlier – Kaliningrad College for Art and Industry).