The culmination of the Gliniada 2010 competition was supposed to be an exhibition of the winning entries. At the opening, the winners should have received their prizes. According to the competition rules, the deadline for awarding the prizes and organizing the exhibition passed a month ago (November 15).
This year, Gliniada was not limited to the Glinoludów parade. A town was built where workshops and competitions were held. One of the attractions was a special outdoor photography session during which people dressed up and covered in clay were photographed. All this was intended to bring the best possible entries to the Gliniada 2010 photography competition.
Krzysztof Krzemiński, president of the Via Sudetica Association, encouraged people to take part in the photography competition and exhibition. In his words, this was the traditional conclusion to work connected with organizing Gliniada throughout the year.
The photography competition was divided into three stages. The last one ended on October 15. Internet users selected the winning photographs chosen by a special jury and posted on a newly created website for amateur photographers.
The last information about the competition dates back to October 6 and encouraged people to vote. The photographs selected by Internet users were never presented. To this day, the Via Sudetica Association has neither organized the exhibition nor awarded the winners.
The president explains the whole matter by referring to this year's elections, in which he was involved (he ran for councilor from the Civic Platform list), together with Bogusław Nowak (Gliniada's artistic director), who was running for president. “We did not organize an exhibition of the winning entries because we did not want to mix Gliniada with politics,” explains Krzysztof Krzemiński. “That is why it was postponed. We will probably organize the opening in January.”/> As for the prizes, their value and who will fund them, the Association's president knows nothing.
On Gliniada's official website (the Via Sudetica website has been under construction for several months), one can read information dated September 3 this year, published by Radosław Iwicki, the Association's treasurer, about attractive cash and material prizes to be funded by the Bolesławiec County Office.
Dariusz Kwaśniewski, a board member and county councilor, replied after we informed him that the County Office was sponsoring the prizes that this was a lie. “We are not funding prizes for the Gliniada 2010 photography competition, nor were we going to. The Association's members knew this in February this year. It is true that they submitted an application to finance this cultural event. However, the proposal did not receive a sufficient number of points in the competition for carrying out public tasks in the field of promoting culture. ‘Sounds of the City’ won—the concerts organized in the Glinoludów town in August. We co-financed the event to the amount of 5,000 złoty,” stated Dariusz Kwaśniewski.
This time, the organizer of the Gliniada 2010 photography competition made sure that the photographs were worthwhile, but still has not awarded the prizes or organized the exhibition. It failed to comply with the terms of its own rules. Explaining this by citing involvement in the elections is a rather unserious argument, especially since many Association members did not run in the elections. And it is possible that we are the only ones who, despite everything, remembered the exhibition and the prizes for the authors of the winning entries.
(information by Grażyna Hanaf)