Art Colony Begins: Artists Create in Sićevo for the Next 10 Days
Last night, the 61st convocation of the oldest art colony in the Balkans was officially opened in the village of Sićevo, where 9 artists from Croatia, Bulgaria and Serbia will be staying for the next 10 days. The artworks created during this year’s event will be exhibited in the Pavilion in the Fortress in November 2025.
The Sićevo Art Colony continues the tradition of the first Yugoslav art colony, founded by the famous Serbian painter Nadežda Petrović.
“We are opening this colony with special pleasure, because for us this is the year of the anniversary and 6 full decades of continuous maintenance of the Sićevo Colony. It took a lot of vision, commitment and enthusiasm to bring to life the idea that Nadežda Petrović had in 1905 when she first gathered her colleagues here in the village of Sićevo. Thanks to this, our institution has over 900 paintings, sculptures and new media that we preserve, study, take care of, and occasionally exhibit, and these are works by over 500 authors from our country and abroad,” says Ema Ćoćić Bilić, director of the Gallery of Contemporary Fine Arts.
The opening ceremony was also attended by Prof. Dr. Dejan Antić, State Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, who emphasized his unique position on supporting this significant cultural event.
“It is an honor and a pleasure to be with you tonight. I would like to take this opportunity to convey to the director and all of you the position of Minister Nikola Selaković that the state of Serbia and the Ministry of Culture will continue to support the organization of such a colony. The Ministry has supported the realization of the Colony continuously in previous years, and it will continue to do so in the years ahead,” says Prof. Dr. Dejan Antic, State Secretary at the Ministry of Culture. The collection of works of art created in Sićevo is the most valuable collection of our art from the second half of the century in the territory of Serbia proper, both in terms of its historical, artistic and aesthetic characteristics.
City Councilor Milica Paulus said that artists are the most important in a society, and she recalled the words of Nadežda Petrović.
“Artists must be teachers not only of their own people, but of all peoples. Not only of their own, but of all centuries. And true art must be a teacher, educator and fighter for the progress of humanity. We can say that the task and mission of artists and art have not changed to this day. In this name, I wish all participants a pleasant stay and successful work in this wonderful space where artists and nature compete in the beauty of colors and shapes,” says Councilwoman Milica Paulus.
The participants of the Sićevo Art Colony 2024 are: Nina Ivanović, Marija Bogdanović, Đorđe Stanojević (Belgrade), Nikolija Stanojević, Milan Hrnjazović (Valjevo), Borislav Božić (Croatia), Dinko Nenov (Bulgaria), Milan Ristić and Tijana Savković (Niš).
The implementation of this year’s event was supported by the City of Niš and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia.