The workshops consisted of four visual arts disciplines particularly associated with the region of Lower Silesia and Upper Lusatia: ceramics, clay sculpture, ceramic painting and design. An additional attraction bringing the project participants together was a fifth workshop devoted to drumming.
The animation town was very popular among tourists from Germany and other European countries, as well as guests and tourists visiting the Bolesławiec Ceramic Festival. All workshop participants could take home the works they created during the workshops. As every year, the project activities were most popular with children and young people. The workshop leaders hope that the talents revealed during the sessions will continue to develop in the coming school year.
The visual arts activities were held under the patronage of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, while the ceramics, painting and sculpture classes were led by lecturers from this university.
- The clay sculpting workshop held under the patronage of ASP Wrocław was conducted by artist Rytis Konstantinavičius.
Rytis Konstantinavičius has worked with ceramics since 1984. He is a graduate of the Wrocław Academy of Fine Arts, where he works as a lecturer in the ceramics department and as assistant to Professor Przemysław Lasak in the First Artistic Ceramics Studio. He creates figurative ceramic sculpture, focusing primarily on contemporary human beings and the world of the individual, as well as abstract painting. In 2015, he was entered into the Guinness World Records for creating the world’s largest ceramic vessel. He has participated in 89 national and international group exhibitions, 12 solo exhibitions, and 32 international and national ceramic and painting symposia. He is a jury member of the “FRESH” ceramics biennale in Lithuania, a curator of national and international exhibitions, and curator of the “Cucuteni Art. Camp” International Ceramics and Painting Symposium in Moldova.
- The workshop on painting associated with artistic ceramics, held under the patronage of ASP Wrocław, was conducted by Weronika Surma, a graduate of the Faculty of Sculpture at ASP in Warsaw.
Weronika Surma completed her interfaculty doctoral studies at the Faculty of Ceramics and Glass of the E. Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław in 2018, where she currently works as an assistant to Professor J. Teper in the Studio of Ceramic Technologies and Techniques in Painting and Sculpture. She also runs her own ceramics studio at CK Agora in Wrocław. She completed internships at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Czechia (2012), the Academy of Fine Arts in Vilnius, Lithuania (2016), and the Kay Aplin Ceramics Studio in Brighton, England (2017). She graduated from the A. Kenar Secondary School of Fine Arts in Zakopane. She received an MKiDN scholarship (2015) and several distinctions at international exhibitions, including Ex Tempore in Zagreb, Croatia, and Together 2015 in Riga, Latvia. She participates in numerous group exhibitions, both domestic and international, as well as international plein-air events, symposia and artistic residencies. She curates competitions and art and design exhibitions, as well as the 12th and 13th editions of the High Temperatures Festival. Her main focus is artistic ceramics, combining drawing, sculpture, graphic art and painting into a coherent whole on the surface of a ceramic image.
- The workshop on shaping clay on traditional potter’s wheels, held under the patronage of ASP Wrocław, was conducted by Dr Jakub Biewald.
Jakub Biewald is a graduate of the sculpture programme, specializing in Artistic Ceramics, at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. He graduated with distinction in 2014. He received the Professor A. Ryszka Award for the best sculpture student in 2013. He earned his doctorate at the Faculty of Ceramics and Glass of the E. Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław in 2020. He currently works as a laboratory technician at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław and as an assistant in the Studio of Fundamentals of Ceramic Design.
- The design workshop, involving the creation of masks in any style, was conducted by Aleksandra Frątczak, a teacher of grades 1–3. The mask decorations were inspired by Bolesławiec ceramics.
- The drumming workshop, using various percussion instruments, was led by Mariusz Raźny from the Drum Studio in Wrocław.
An additional project activity was the participants’ involvement in a colourful parade of clay figures, combined with colouring clay using HOLI powders and body painting. Parade participants could use the special masks they had created during the design workshops.
The “Ceramic City – Polish-German Visual Arts Workshops” project is co-financed by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund and by state-budget funds via the Nysa Euroregion.
