The ‘13 Centuries Bulgaria’ National Endowment Fund presented Samokov Municipality with a donation to support the National Children’s Drawing Competition, part of the Zahariy Zograph National Painting Prize. The funding will be used to buy materials for the children competing.
A ceremony to present the Zahariy Zograph National Award for Achievements in the Field of Visual Arts took place on 6 October 2023, at 5:30 p.m., at the Prof. Vasil Zahariev Art Gallery, Samokov. Artist Encho Pironkov was the winner of last year’s award.
The National Children’s Award Competition jury to select the winner of the 2022 Zachariy Zograph National Award was chaired by Prof. Axinia Džurova, Cor. Mem. BAS, DA, and its members are Vladimir Georgiev, Mayor of Samokov Municipality; Lyuben Genov, Chair of the Union of Bulgarian Artists; Prof. Stanislav Pamukchiev, recipient of the 2003 Zahariy Zograph Award; Zahary Kamenov, winner of the 2016 Zahariy Zograph Award; Boris Kitanov, art historian, and Ivan Maslarski, gallerist.
The winner of the Special Award of Samokov Municipality is 10-year-old Lorraine Simeonova from Dupnitsa.
Children aged between 4 and 6, the winners are: 1st place: Raya Radovanova, 6 years old, Kozloduy; 2nd place: Slavina Razpopova, 6 years old, Samokov; and 3rd place: Mihaela Stoyanova, 6 years old, Dobrich.
Children aged between 7 and 10: 1st place: Eleonora Blagoeva, 7 years old, Samokov; 2nd place: Marie Nikolova, 7 years old, Sevlievo; and 3rd place: Rositsa Slaveva, Dupnitsa.
Children aged between 11 and 15: 1st place: Nikol Masheva, 11 years old, Pleven; 2nd place: Bozhidara Dimitrova, 12 years old, Asenovgrad, and 3rd place: Violeta Stoimenova, 15 years old, Samokov.
The Union of Bulgarian Artists’ prize went to 7-year-old Maria Petrova from Pleven.
The award in the name of Bulgarian painter and iconographer, Zahariy Hristovich Zograph, from the Samokov Art School, was set up in 1972.
As Academician Svetlin Rusev, winner of the first, (1973) Zahariy Zograph Award, once pointed out, ‘For a Bulgarian artist, the Zahariy Zograph Award is a measure not only of the highest creative achievements but above all of commensurability with the lasting and imperishable Bulgarian spirituality.’
All the prize-winning works are kept at the Museum of History in Samokov.