50 Years of the Children’s May Art Salon
May 23 at 12:00 - June 20 at 13:00
The Children’s May Art Salon was established back in 1974. Since then, this event dedicated to children has been held continuously for 50 years, marking an invaluable place in the history of the Museum and the city of Kraljevo. The Salon was founded with the aim of affirming and showcasing children’s perspectives, imagination, work, and talent in the realm of visual and artistic culture.
The first art historian employed as a curator at the National Museum Kraljevo was Milorad Mihailović. In an effort to “make cooperation with primary schools more concrete and substantive,” Mihailović initiated the Children’s May Art Salon in 1974 under the auspices of the National Museum. The event was conceived to provide an overview of artistic creations by primary school children from the Kraljevo municipality and to present the talents and creativity of Kraljevo students to the wider public. The National Museum Kraljevo is among the first cultural institutions to have begun organizing this type of children’s art presentation, making the Children’s May Art Salon one of the oldest such events in Serbia.
Through participation in the jury, many prominent Kraljevo artists (Milan Đokić, Pavle Popović, Radoš Rakuš, Danka Pribaković Kostić, Velimir Zelenović, Nenad Stefanović, Dragan Pešić, Slobodan Marinković, Boban Bosić, Svetlana Jevtić, Dušica Radosavljević Jovanchević, Matija Marković, Alisa Matović, Svetlana Vuksanović, Jovana Banjanac, Jakov Jakovljević) have contributed to elevating the artistic and qualitative standards of the exhibited selections. Some Kraljevo artists had their first exhibitions at the Children’s Salon (Jelena Šalinić, Ivan Milunović, Bojan Vuksanović, Danka Dimitrijević, Nenad Dimitrijević, Jovana Banjanac, Andrea Leshević, Mina Bosić, and others).
At the 23rd Children’s May Art Salon, held in 1996, a significant shift in the exhibition concept took place. In addition to ten equal awards, a newly established main prize was introduced – the Milorad Mihailović Award—named in honor of the Salon’s founder and long-time director of the National Museum Kraljevo, who passed away prematurely in 1995.