Aija Jurjāne scholarship for art school students will be announced

This is a private initiative and 3rd year students of vocational art schools will be able to apply for the scholarship. The aim of such a scholarship is to perpetuate the name of Aija Jurjāne, expressing support for the vital necessity of art education and the original efforts of young people to express themselves creatively.

Today, the painting of the artist Aija Jurjāne (1944–2015) can be seen as a continuous study, an observation, and at times a relentless message about a woman’s life in her own family. In art, this may seem like a marginal setting, but today, when the accents of the “big issues” of pathos turn to the events of an individual’s life as an equally important issue to be solved in art, the consistent “observer” course of Aija Jurjāne’s painting acquires special relevance and a kind of thematic monumentality.

The second important sphere of Aija Jurjāne’s professional activity is the work of an art teacher at Janis Rozentāls Riga Art High School for forty years. Aija Jurjāne’s name has already entered as an example of the concept of a good teacher, and it is mentioned in the memories of school students. The culmination of Aija Jurjāne’s art pedagogy methodology developed over the years is her books “Composition” (“Neputns”, 2005) and “Painting” (“Neputns”, 2002). This is the only case when a school teacher, as an individual author, has compiled his / her knowledge in an already methodical publication, which can be used by teachers of other art schools, as well as any beginner of the art profession.

The monograph contains records of the artist’s diaries and memories, which accurately capture the post-war situation in Soviet Latvia, documentary photographs and, of course, creative heritage – painting, porcelain glaze paintings, watercolors, sketches, illustrations, as well as unique drawings intended for the family.

The author of the book and the project manager is Sandra Krastiņa, but the texts were written by Anita Vanaga, Sandra Krastiņa, Rasa Jansone, Dace Lamberga, Anna Auziņa, Reinis Dzudzilo, Barbara Gaile, Edgars Vērpe, Aija Jurjāne and Ieva Jurjāne. The design was created by Artis Briedis and Rūta Briede.

The title painting of the book can be viewed and the books can be purchased at a special price in the gallery “Istaba” from January 10 to 14.