The beautiful established tradition of promoting talented schoolchildren went on with the announcement of the My Albania digital competition. This is an annual competition which is open to every student from all over the country and they are invited to participate by sending a photo of his / her painting, which conveys a special landscape, symbol or moment from history and our wonderful country, full of value and beauty.

The competition is hosted every year, with the paintings by the schoolchildren and high school students being published in three different albums, featuring paintings selected by a professional jury. The paintings that will receive more likes from real people in each album will be the winners, so in total there will be 3 winning paintings, for which a symbolic prize is awarded.

More than 2500 paintings have been downloaded on the application link.

Prime Minister Edi Rama attended the ceremony where the certificates of the finalists in My Albania competition were awarded.

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Good afternoon everyone,

I would like to congratulate everyone for your paintings.

I’ve been working as a painting teacher at the then Academy of Arts for several years and I haven’t certainly forgotten that part of my professional life and I can openly admit that through the paintings I have curiously looked at, I have actually seen really impressive talents and I wish any of them to go on along this path. But, on the other hand, although you may choose another professional career path to become economists, engineers, IT experts or lawyers, I also advise  you not to give up this eye, mind and hands activity, because it provides you the opportunity to feed your fantasy and the opportunity to run away from the daily routine and retreat in solitude with you and with the white canvas in front of you, because this is a very good exercise for the eye, the mind, and soul and it definitely enriches one’s life when he or she is granted such a gift and talent.

The same goes for the talented young musicians and instrumentalists. The same goes for the talented pupils and students with a keen sense and talent in sculpture, pottery, embroidery and so on. This is actually the reason why we are working on the programme that the Education Minister mentioned a bit earlier. It is an afterschool program on arts, crafts and sports, so as to allow schoolchildren spend a part of their leisure time exercising precisely their senses and their minds through an artistic discipline or craft disciplines and thus creating works and products that are primarily worth to the eye, the mind, the way of seeing and perceiving reality and definitely also the spiritual relief, beyond the fact that I hope very much for any of the children to continue on this path.

Engaging with art is not an easy path, yet it is a very beautiful one. I would like to again congratulate the young painters attending this event and tell them that their paintings are really impressive.

These paintings have been selected both by the public and a commission of professionals, who are really surprised at the quality of these works and I would like to congratulate the parents attending this ceremony and those who couldn’t join us today.

I am convinced that the programme will be supportive for the parents as it would allow them to let their kids at environments where they can deal with arts, crafts, offering them also the opportunity to temporarily leave aside their smartphones, iPads  and computer, which are actually becoming a serious trouble for every parent and allow them to socialize with one another.

Technology is certainly a must; it is definitely the unavoidable future. We, representing another generation, can’t do anything to stop it, even if we wish to do so. However, what we should do together and what we will try to do together with all the parents is to create conditions and spaces to encourage them to leave aside these devices.

Thank you so much and again and I think it is now the time when we will award some certificates so that the children can keep them as a memento of this event, but also preserve it as a document, showing they have won this competition and remember it for the rest of time.