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Becoming an Artist
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Author: By Tony Hanmer
This article follows an earlier one about the process and some details of my becoming a photographer, which really started when I was 11 years old. I am writing it now because I have a month-long solo exhibition opening on Friday, May 18. Admittedly an exhibition of photography, not other art; but my theme today involves exhibitions of mine in general.
Art was the thing on which I concentrated in high school in Canada, to the detriment of mathematics, which only later I came to love. My near-fail in grade 12 math (final mark: 50%) is also partly due to having a Doctor of Mathematics as a teacher. He took the serious mathematicians and flew with them, somewhere up there, where the curve tends towards infinity, and left the rest of us where the curve tends towards average. His own final mark in high school math had been 100%, and he was in university at age 16.
There was a prize in art for my high school’s senior year, and that was what I wanted. I received it. But the same year (1985), I was refused as an applicant to the Alberta College of Art (ACA), possibly Canada’s best higher institution for art. My “revenge” would come a couple of years later. At the time, though, this was painful as I realized the hands-on exposure to all forms of art over the next four years which was being denied me.
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Duisi derby: a day amongst Georgian Chechens
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Author: By Inga Popovaite
The annual horse race takes place in Duisi village every year on May 9 – the Victory Day. The derby itself seemed to last only for a few minutes, maybe ten, but the whole festive atmosphere was what brought me there in the first place.
The Pankisi Gorge is located in the northeastern corner of the country and belongs to the Akhmeta district in Kakheti. If you are familiar with the regions of Georgia and hope that in this corner of Georgia you can sip delicious Kakhetian wine and look to stunning Georgian orthodox churches on the slopes of the Caucasus mountains, you might be disappointed or at least mildly surprised.
The first sights that caught my eyes when we reached Duisi were women wearing headscarves and long dresses. To be fair, you do not see a lot of young Georgian ladies covering the most of their bodies especially in the hot spring day as it was. The Mosque in the center of the village, almost every second teenager wearing Chechen T-shirt on it and speaking mountain tongue different than Kartuli – welcome to the little Chechnya of Georgia.
Kists, the ethnic group of Chechen origin form the vast majority (75 per cent) of the population here. Some of them were born here and some are refugees from Chechnya who came here to find haven from never ending struggle and fights in the Northern Caucasus.
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Discover Sri Lanka
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Plan your dream holiday and travel through an island of small miracles. Get a tan, surf, pamper yourself, and explore the wildlife.
Travelers from Georgia are willing to open up new directions, travel further and gain new experience by discovering new and diverse destinations. Sri Lanka is among the destinations that will quench the thirst of curious minds.
Sri Lanka, also known as Ceylon, is gaining popularity among tourists. Last year over 800,000 international travelers visited this beautiful island and the Sri Lankan government is determined to raise this number to 2.5 million visitors per-year by 2016. The number of Russian travelers exceeded 14,000. The majority of the international tourist came to Sri Lanka via the Dubai hub, with more than 60,000 of them arriving with flydubai. That is a 125% increase in comparison with 2010.
What to see:
The main city of Sri Lanka Colombo and the surrounding area will be of great interest to those who want to explore the treasures of the world. Sri Lanka is home to eight world heritage sites: Galle, Kandy, Sigiriya, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruva, the Dambulla cave temple, the Central Highlands, and the Lion-King Sinharaja tropical rainforest. Sri Lanka is considered to be the cradle of Buddhism, and its various relicts are kept there and are included in special ceremonies. One of the best known is the bearing out of the Buddha sacred tooth from Dalada Maligawa temple in Kandy. The ceremony is accompanied by a festive procession that lasts for several days, involving hundreds of temple elephants, national dancers, and torchbearers.
Another place of interest directly connected with Buddhist culture is the Golden Temple of Dambulla. This has been the center of pilgrimage for Buddhists and Hindus alike for 22 centuries. It is Sri Lanka’s most popular historic site. The cave monastery, home to Buddhist monks, is covered with exquisite 2,000 year-old murals depicting the life and times of Buddha. The shrines also house a collection of 157 statues of Buddha in various shapes, sizes and poses- including a 15 meter long reclining Buddha and vividly colored frescoes on the walls and ceiling, making this the largest antique painted surface in the world.
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Rezidor announces the Radisson Blu Resort, Tsinandali (Georgia)
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The Rezidor Hotel Group, one of the fastest growing hotel companies worldwide and a member of the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, announces the Radisson Blu Resort, Tsinandali in Georgia. The property featuring 100 rooms is scheduled to welcome the first guests in 2014. Tsinandali lies in the province of Kakheti, one of the most popular tourism regions of Georgia; east of the capital city Tbilisi and bordered by the Greater Caucasus Mountains to the North.
“We are delighted to add a rare vintage to our growing collection of contemporary resorts”, said Kurt Ritter, President & CEO of Rezidor. The Radisson Blu Resort, Tsinandali is being developed in the heart of Georgia’s ancient viniculture region. The hotel, surrounded by 19th century vineyards and botanical gardens, is of historical significance. The Tsinandali estate includes two museums, one to the aristocratic poet Prince Alexander Chavchavdze, who built the winery in the first half of the 19th century, and the second to the rich variety of Georgian wine and gastronomy.
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Countdown to the 14th Annual Tbilisi International Book Festival
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Author: By Kate Lekishvili
Next Thursday, on May 24, the Tbilisi International Book Festival (TIBF) will be opened for the fourteenth year at Expo Georgia and will last for four days. Like in the previous year, the festival’s door will be open to everyone, and attendance will be free.
TIBF has become an important and popular event: every year, dozens of Georgian and foreign publishing houses take part in TIBF, and offer their books at a much lower price than usual. Discounts range between 30 and 70 percent.
According to Nino Goniashvili, the Executive Director of the Georgian Book Publishers and Distributors Association (GPBA), “the festival already has about 70 participants, from which more than 60 are publishing houses.”
The main objective of the festival is to support the publishing business in Georgia, as well as the authors and libraries. The publishing houses are benefiting and they are given an additional and very important platform to represent themselves and the results of their work.
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Georgia marks International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia
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Author: By Tea Gelashvili
On May 14-19, the Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group (WISG) is holding events dedicated to the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) and will organize flash mobs, film shows, photo exhibitions and a roundtable discussion.
On May 14-18, small hall of the Amirani movie theatre will host thematic films, attendance of which is free of charge.
On May 15, the exhibition dedicated to IDAHO was opened at the Gallery Vernissage (7, Brother Zubalashvilis’ Street). Amateur photographers presented their works in two series. One of the series was anti-homophobic slogans expressed in tattoos on bodies. Another series of photos is a symbolic chain of the people who protest against homophobia and violence. The exhibition will be open until May 19.
On May 16, a roundtable was held at the Open Society Georgia Foundation office. The difficulties of homophobic legal cases were discussed at the roundtable.
The week of events is held with the financial support of the civil society support program (Matra) of the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Netherlands, within the project “Promoting Visibility of LBT Movement in Georgia”.
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British Council awards winners of Design My Future competition
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Author: By Ana Sabanadze
Design My Future, a competition for learners of the English Language, revealed the two winning projects on May 11 in Kutaisi. For winning the competition, teams will be funded for the implementation of the project in their schools.
The project partners shortlisted only five projects. The competition engaged 12-16 year olds to come up with their own projects. The participants were required to make a presentation about the four-week plans on how they can improve their own healthy eating, physical activity and emotional well-being- both now and in the future. The project also equipped young people with a positive attitude towards life and most importantly learning English.
The two winning projects were presented by Kutaisi public schools no 3 and 17, and Zaza Purtseladze, Director of the British Council, expressed his gratitude to the participants and organizers. In his comments to Georgia Today, he said that they were very glad that the competition attracted such a high interest, stating that it was “an absolute success” as it was in the cities of Gori and Telavi prior.
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New Light starts a campaign to help children with leukemia
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Author: By Ia Natsvlishvili
With the motto “Leukemia is curable”, New Light, which sells lighting accessories and illuminants, began a new campaign on May 15, which aims to help children suffering from leukemia.
From May 15 to June 15, all customers who purchase Philips and Opple lamps found in all New Light outlets will become involved in the charity campaign. 10% of the proceeds from the lamp sales will be donated to the Irma Gabinashvili Charity Foundation, from which the organizers will transfer funds to those who need it.
The Irma Gabinashvili Charity Foundation was set up in 2012 with the goal of helping people with leukemia that need operations or ambulance service.
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Armed and dangerous at the New Wine Festival
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Author: By Robert Linkous
Friday afternoon, May 11. Thunderous rain pelted cringing Tbilisi. But corkscrews did not rust to a condition of inoperability, the outdoor Museum of Ethnography was not reduced to a slippery slope of mud and turf, and on Saturday the third annual New Wine Festival took place as scheduled.
A multitude of enthusiasts came up the mountain. Some made the pilgrimage on foot.
The very heavens cooperated, with a blue sky barely perturbed by clouds, a mild breeze tickling the limbs of overhanging trees, only a little humidity lingering from the all too sodden previous afternoon, while below urban Tbilisi stretched out, as panoramic as those with the leisure to notice might have pleased.
Behind the more serious business of the festival was the Wine Club, an upstanding organization bent on promoting the traditions and pleasures of Georgian wine.
The Wine Club left nothing to chance. For 10 Lari businesslike tasters could purchase a “Wine Club” wineglass with a handy pouch the color of Rkatsiteli (sort of) which could be slung becomingly about the neck. In post-Soviet Georgia technology hops forward every day.
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Costs of Celebrating
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Author: By Thomas Reynolds
This column appears twice monthly and discusses current topics that impact youth, women, those affected by conflict and those located in remote villages. Thomas Reynolds is the Mission Director of CARE International in the Caucasus.
A group of young men and women are relaxing on a disabled tank. Below the gun turret is painted the number 442. In the centre a boy aged 9 or so is reaching for a flag held by a young man. Teenagers celebrate an Armenian victory on a black-and-white picture which I came across on Euraisa.net. In Nagorny Karabakh, the town called Shushi by those of Armenian descent or Shusha by people who hail from Azerbaijan is a touchstone that evokes intense feelings for those having lived through the conflict.
On May 7th, the twentieth anniversary of the liberation of Shushi was celebrated. It was marked by stories of heroism, determination and victory over struggle and injustice. Honoring heroes of war is common practice; it builds on national identity and fosters patriotism.
On the same day, somber remembrances observe the occupation of Shusha twenty years ago. Absent of fanfare, the strained reflections of lives and property lost underscored the deep scars that continue to torment the vanquished in periods of conflict.
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