The award ceremony took place in the Great Hall of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Slovenia, where more than 70 people gathered from all over Slovenia. Their teachers, school principals and families also joined the award-winning schoolchildren.

Slovenian schools regularly participate in the children's art competition organised by the Lidice Memorial and the number of schools taking part in the competition is growing every year. In the 51st edition of the competition, 86 Slovenian educational institutions have entered with 875 registered artworks. 13 primary schools were awarded, 34 pupils were awarded honorable mentions and two schools and two pupils received medals, the highest prizes of the competition.

The award ceremony was opened by the State Secretary of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Slovenia, Mrs. Janja Zupančič, who in her opening speech appreciated the art works of the children, the pedagogical work of the teachers and emphasized the importance of the international art competition and the Lidice exhibition.

The Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Slovenia, Mr. Jiří Kuděla, in his speech appreciated the participation of children and schools in the competition and congratulated the awarded schoolchildren. He noted how successful they had been, that out of the 16,416 entries from 83 countries that took part in the competition, it was they who had won the prizes and that Slovenia had come in a high fifth place in the competition. In the end, he thanked the children for honouring the memory of the children victims of the terrible war in the Czech village of Lidice and all the other children who died in the fighting and wished them every success in life and in their future artistic accomplishments. He also thanked the Slovenian Ministry of Education for its help in organising the award ceremony and providing information on the Lidice MDVV to Slovenian schools.

Throughout the awards ceremony, the guests were able to see the award-winning artworks of Slovenian children at a screening.

Congratulations to all the prizewinners and we look forward to next year.

The names of the award participants are available here. You can see the award-winning works here.