Team from Niš WINNER of the International Competition “Danube Art Master 2019”

The Danube Art Master winners are selected by 13 countries, which share the Danube River Basin, including Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. The competition is open to all children and schools across the 13 countries that make up the Danube River Basin. Around 663 children from 127 schools participated, submitting about 275 artworks and 72 videos including team submissions.

In 2019 there are three equal winners in the overall artwork category – Austria, Croatia, and Serbia:

• Serbia’s Dunavsko tkanje (‘Danube fabric‘), by Danica Jović, Nađa Stanković, Jana Mladenović, and Stevan Stojanović from the Primary School “Stefan Nemanja”;
• Austria’s Lieblingsort (‘Favourite place‘), by first graders of the 1c class of Elementary School Wehlistrasse in Vienna; and
• Croatia’s Dunav (‘Danube‘), by Ilija Kovač, Antonio Saks, and Martina Matanovac from the Primary School “Slatinik Drenjski in Drenje“.

All three artworks received the same amount of total points from the international jury making them equal first place winners.

In the video category, Klara Hardi from the OŠ “Antuna Bauera” school in Croatia won with the short video “Danube“.

Winning works, videos and other successful works from all participating countries can be found in more detail on the Danube Art Master FB page.

The winning team from Nis is made up of students from the “Stefan Nemanja” Elementary School, who are involved in the work of the Eco Club under the mentorship of teachers Vesna Kocić and Vesna Vukojević. They represented their group in Belgrade at the proclamation of national winners of the “Danube Art Master” during the celebration of the Danube Day. Ahead of them is the Hungarian Government-sponsored prize-giving trip to the Budapest Water Summit, which will take place from 16 to 18 October. At this major international event, they and their fellow winners from other countries will be promoted as “crowned Danube Art Masters“.

The Danube Art Master, international contest, is an activity of the International Danube River Basin Commission and the Global Water Partnership for Central and Eastern Europe. The competition targets ages 6-18 and has been conducted in 14 countries on the Danube River Basin since 2004. The theme of the competition changes every season. So far, young people are invited to: activate for a healthier, cleaner Danube, for the conservation of sturgeon, and the like. while the theme of this year’s competition was: “WE LOVE THE DANUBE”. Organizer’s announcement can be downloaded here.

Since 2010, Young Researchers of Serbia, with the support of the Republic Water Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of the Republic of Serbia, has been coordinating this competition in Serbia. More detailed overview of the competition 2019 in Serbia can be found here.