NEVER BORING: POLAND’S URBAN SKETCHING FESTIVAL BY DORA PINDUR, USK POLAND
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Sk Poland received a USk Regional Event grant and recently presented its Urban Sketching Festival in the beautiful city of Świdnica. The festival lasted four days (11-14 August) with two exhibitions, four workshops, lectures, an art materials fair, mobile art equipment rental, testing of Aquarius watercolors at Roman Szmal’s stand, competitions, treasure hunt, and sketchwalks. No one was bored – but some complained about the excess of activities! Participants came from Poland, all over Europe, and beyond, with some visiting Poland for the first time. In addition to focusing on sketching, the festival also became an opportunity to make many new
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contacts and acquaintances. It was also a promotion for both the city of Świdnica and our country. For some, this was their first time in Poland. The organizers of the festival were the admins of USk Poland: Justyna Wojnowska, Dora Pindur and Kasia Kosiak, as well as Marta Ciućka from the Świdnica Cultural Center, who provided enormous logistical and artistic support. The sponsors gave many gifts to the festival participants, providing articles for goodie bags and competition prizes. Our special guest was Mohan Banerji from USk Executive Board, who gave a lecture on his sketching experience and a live broadcast with us.
Another, longer live event on Instagram was hosted by our friend based in Toronto, Marek Badzynski, together with a renowned Polish painter Krzysztof Ludwin, who was with us in Świdnica. They did a great show, sketching the Church of Peace together and telling the viewers (in Polish and English) about its history, the festival and many other things. We would like to
thank all the participants for coming to Świdnica and taking part in our festival – without them the event wouldn’t have happened. Check out these two videos made by our volunteer filmmaker Tomasz
Kowal from Koval Sketchbooks.
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