Children's art from the Kolyo Arabadzhiev and Rayna Racheva schools goes on show in the courtyard of the Georgi Baev Gallery Museum in Burgas, the gallery says. Entry is free.
The courtyard display features ceramic panels and sculptures made at Arabadzhiev's school, alongside decorative mosaics from Racheva's school. The ceramics mix traditional pottery craft with a child's sense of shape and relief, while the mosaics stand out for their intricate design, feel for colour and precise technique.
The gallery says the two schools were among the leading names in Bulgarian applied art during the 20th century. Their students have won dozens of awards at national and international shows, and their work has made Burgas known as a hub for children's art.
Kolyo Arabadzhiev was born on 1 March 1936 in Kableshkovo. He studied at the Commercial High School in Burgas, finishing in 1954, then graduated from the National Academy of Art in Sofia in 1966 with a degree in decorative-monumental sculpture and a teaching qualification.
He spent many years teaching art at Ivan Vazov elementary school in Burgas, now Ivan Vazov Secondary School, where in October 1971 he set up a modelling club. That club grew into Bulgaria's first children's school of ceramic art and sculpture.
The club started with 10 to 12 children and grew to between 80 and 100. Today the school is run by Ivan Arabadzhiev, who grew up in it himself. Over the years the studio has hosted visiting scholars and cultural figures from Europe, America and Asia.
As a ceramic artist, Arabadzhiev worked in decorative sculpture — park figures, decorative fountains, ceramic panels, roadside sculptural markers, small pieces and jewellery. He took part in regional and national shows of applied art.
Rayna Racheva was born on 16 December 1939 in the village of Banya, near Blagoevgrad. She finished art high school in Sofia in 1958 and graduated from the National Academy of Art in 1964, majoring in decorative-monumental painting and mosaic under professor G. Bogdanov. She then settled in Burgas, where she lived and worked, and joined the Union of Bulgarian Artists in 1979.
She has held more than 30 solo shows in Bulgaria and taken part in national, regional and touring exhibitions of Bulgarian art abroad. She paints landscapes, portraits and still lifes — her early work bold and expressive with heavy paint, her later work in soft, light tones. She also worked alongside her husband, Burgas artist Encho Rachev, on his large public projects in Burgas and the wider region.
In 1979 Racheva set up Burgas's municipal school for children's mosaics and ran it for more than 30 years. Its students made hundreds of works and took part in every international children's "Flag of Peace" gathering, as well as national children's exhibitions in Sofia, complete with displays and on-site workshops. In 1984 the school won a gold medal at the sixth national review of amateur art.
In 2009 Rayna Racheva and her mosaic school were invited to the international mosaic festival in Ravenna, Italy, where the opening ceremony featured mosaics made by children from Burgas. Ravenna's mosaic museum still holds 30 mosaics by the school's children. The school closed in 2013 for lack of funding.
The gallery is at 6 Demokratsia Boulevard. It's open Tuesday to Thursday, 9am to 1pm and 2pm to 6pm; Friday, 9am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm; and Saturday, 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 6pm. It's closed Sundays and Mondays.