Surrounded by colourful and creative works of art, on Thursday, 30 November, JSC "Latvia's State Forests" (LVM) Customer Centre in Riga hosted the awards ceremony of the first LVM Scholarship in Art.
The scholarship of EUR 1500 for developing the creative talent was presented to Zoja Golubeva, a student of the Art Academy of Latvia. With her work "Meža Sirds" (The Heart of the Forest) Zoja convinced the members of the jury both of her ability to portray her creative vision in a painting, and of the fact that during the process of creation the work, the artist actually went to the forest to draw inspiration for her creative expression.
LVM also awarded its Choice Award. This year, the jury's Choice Award was presented for Laura Veļa for her work "Kas tur aug?" (What Is Growing There?).
The contest turned out to be very popular among students - 45 students of the Art Academy of Latvia applied a total of 61 works for the scholarship contest. After thorough evaluation of the works, the jury selected eleven best and most creative works, which until 10 December are exhibited in LVM Customer Centre in Riga. Competition finalists: Laura Veļa, Zoja Golubeva, Eduards Dubrovskis, Agnese Kaupere, Kristaps Priede, Anna Pommere, Ansis Rozentāls, Kristīne Kutepova, Anna Pabērza, Ella Mežule and Madara Kvēpa.
To objectively evaluate the performance of the young artists from the point of view of both forestry and art, the jury consisted of three LVM representatives and of representatives the Art Academy of Latvia: Rector Prof. Kristaps Zariņš, Asoc. Prof. Andris Vītoliņš and Painting Department Prof. Aleksejs Naumovs.
The scholarship competition this year for the first time is arranged by JSC "Latvia's State Forests" in cooperation with the Art Academy of Latvia. The scholarship aims to promote student awareness of the forest as the largest renewable resource in Latvia, which is constantly growing. Under the theme "Forest Grows", students were asked to link creativity with young-growth forests.
More information and the contest regulation are available at http://www.lvm.lv/maksla.