| All of
us come from the land of childhood and, in due course, we all will get back to it.
Childhood is the time of fairy-tales, dreams and fantasy. This inner state, when you feel
the necessity to draw, to paint or to model and in this way to express oneself, is hard to
put into words. Children's creative work, revealing their pure minds and artistic souls,
is so nice and sincere that we, grown-ups, have to appreciate and to encourage it. Children's art is like an open book, which can be read by everyone. It helps to understand a child and to deal with him or her. Art is an integral part of childhood as well as human life on the whole and it makes life richer, more significant and unique. The creative element of human life is a specific and important phenomenon. It can find its expression as a hobby, meant to forget everyday routine and to relax, or more serious occupation, helping to reach the furthest corners of one's mind and soul. The importance of creative work was precisely defined by the well-known Polish professor Albert Zalewski. He said that psychologists realise how important creation is as a possibility for a child to express himself, therefore it has to be encouraged as such. Besides, educational power of art is important in later periods of human life as well. Art gives a chance for a human being to survive in this world of corrupted values, where money has become an ideal and the strive for it undermines the spiritual values of our society. Art offers creative power to fight those destructive tendencies and to help people to look for more noble and sacred things. British art critic and theoretician Herbert Read wrote that first of all a human being is a creator. Creativity is psychologically juxtaposed to destruction. Thus work of art is not meant for decoration, it is an expression of one of the most ingrained human instincts. This instinct influences the formation of personality in childhood and follows a person throughout his/her life inviting him/her to be a creator but not a destroyer. Therefore understanding and practising of art is so important for a child. Aesthetic element is inborn for the most people. But only those become real artists who manage to retain at least something from this wonderful world of childhood. Pablo Picasso said once: " When you are seven years old you are sincere in art, later on you have only to try to get back to this state". Children's art is universally recognised as a phenomenon influencing even professional art. Children's art gallery in Druskininkai is the only such place in Lithuania. It has been founded by Robertas Žukauskas, an artist and art teacher, a participant of Lithuanian children's art exhibitions of many years, honorary and jury member of many international competitions. This gallery is meant for fostering beauty as well as other spiritual values. Moreover it represents Lithuania since its visitors are not only native people but foreign guests coming to Druskininkai. The official date of its foundation is the 4 th of September 1992. The gallery is the fulfilment of the old dream of most of art teachers of Lithuania. Various art events, devoted for children, youth and their teachers' works, has been organised for more than 30 years. That's why the gallery stock contains more than 30 000 different pieces of art collected both from Lithuania and 47 foreign countries. Besides there is a great variety of documents, research and methodological materials.Druskininkai gallery performs some other functions. It organises Lithuanian and a small scale international exhibitions, competitions, summer schools, it publishes catalogues and reviews of these events. Besides it hosts a Lithuanian department of disabled children and young people's art, called "Guboja", it is the Lithuanian representative of the so-called Very special arts international and has contacts with analogue organisations in Denmark, the Netherlands, Russia, Czech Republic, Poland. Regular exhibitions of the art of disabled young people take place in Druskininkai, that reveal their unique inner world. Every drawing or a piece of applied art shows so much of pain and hope, grief and love, that one finds himself in as if in a charmed kingdom. This is creation of people touched by the magic stick of a fairy Fantasy. The activities of the gallery and its spiritual impact have been highly evaluated by professor Irena Voinar from Warsaw university, a responsible member of both: the International Society for Education through Art and the Association Mondiale des Sciences de L'Education as well as other professors, art critics, academicians, art teachers and last but not least children from vary many countries of the world. Dreams and desires in childhood leave unforgettable impression for the rest of one's life. This can be illustrated by visitors' comments that come from the Book of Honoured Quests. Here are a few citations. From the beginning of our times God made it so that we all are only guests in this planet. But we all leave signs after we die, these signs are our works and memories about us. We all leave traces, our footprints in the earth we step on. If those footprints are deep they remain for a long time, if they are meaningful, they turn into paths. So let's leave only deep and meaningful traces, noble works and good memories in other people's hearts. You are mostly welcome to the only gallery of children's art in Lithuania. Our address is Children art gallery, Robertas Žukauskas |