This year October 18th Aluksne Art School teachers together with 3rd-7th grade students went on an educational field trip to visit topical art exhibitions in Riga. In order for the exhibition attendance to be memorable, to enable learners to reflect more deeply on what they saw, and to delve deeper into its content and form, each student had to analyze their impressions and provide answers to the questions formulated by the educators in the worksheets.
     First of all, in Riga, we visited the Arsenāls Exhibition Hall, where in the creative workshop we explored the stage image created by the stage designer Andris Freibergs for the opera "Iemūrētie" at the exhibition "136 pakāpieni". The exhibition title symbolically contained the artist's own 80 years of life and 56 steps we had to walk to get to the exhibit. To reflect the theme, Freibergs moderated the language of the exhibition at the same time as a stage designer and director, enabling the viewer to enter the artist's living space through symbolic steps of life, perceiving its presence with unconventional feelings.
      At the Art Museum Riga Bourse, we visited the exhibition "Metaphysics of Light" dedicated to the creative work of the outstanding Russian painter Ivan Aivazovsky. This exhibition brought to light works of art in which lighting and light are a key component of the composition and combines a single dominant theme - variations in lighting, reproducing the artist's elaborate mastery of painting on canvas, such as water, light and space, enchanting the viewer.
In an unconventional view of the world, we were introduced by the artists Mastiņa-Pēterkopa and Rolands Pēterkops, or duet "Mareunrol's" in the exhibition ‘’Augmented Reality’’ at the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design. In Latvia, the duo of artists “Mareunrol’s” is mainly known as artists who have modeled costumes for many theater and opera performances. Though the works of this exhibition allow the viewer to look at the authors' message in a much wider perspective. The artist duo Mareunrol's have interpreted the idea of the exhibition as follows: “Fashion is like information contained in codes; they need to be able to read them, building new ones from existing codes to move on, because that is the only possible way to develop, creating the collective subconscious as a driving force for development. ”
       As part of our trip, at the Daugava Art Gallery, we visited a sculptural exhibition entitled "Zvērīgā spēle," by sculptor Aigars Bikše, in which the artist personally expresses his feelings in Japan at a time of political conflict between North Korea and the United States and when air defense missile equipment was stationed on the streets of Tokyo for security purposes. "Surikats uz mīnas", "Zaķis ar granātu ķepā" and other sculptural works symbolically visualize military armament as a deliberately cultivated "monstrous reality game" played out on our planet from time to time. It was a valuable experience for us all to understand the language of sculpture, making us think of a topic so important to PEACE and LIFE!

     In May 2019, the works of the students of the Aluksne School of Art were sent to the children's art competition ‘’Europe-China’’ exhibition, in Beijing, China. The theme of the competition is that European children paint their impressions of China, while Chinese children paint their impressions of Europe.

 The works of our school students are available at https://mengxiangzhongou.com/gallery/index.php?/category/2&lang=mk_MK
/ images 1058-1068 /

     Works that were sent to the competition were made using various techniques in supervision of teachers Elita Salaka, Daina Rudzīte and Rita Balane.

      This year in the morning of October 5, a group of Aluksne Art School students and teachers went to Ziemeri Manor to participate in a Biomusical field trip. The event was well attended. Both pupils from the Ziemeri Elementary School with their teachers and other interested people from Aluksne and other regions came. The events of the day were preceded by a brief introduction to the history of the manor hostess Dita Balčus and project manager Egija Silāre and a tour of the manor premises. This was followed by work in 3 creative workshops. Each participant received a workbook, "Paintbrush in Nature," which featured reproductions of works by Edmund, Justine and Dace Lūči, illustrating the ability of artists to depict nature, its processes with different materials and techniques.
      Under the guidance of artist Dace Lūce, a map of Ziemeri Manor was created in workbooks and on a canvas on the wall. During the day, each group complemented it, and at the end of the day, a colourful map of Ziemeri Manor with the location of the surrounding objects was ready.
        Under the guidance of Doctor of Biology Iluta Dauškāne we met rare lichens in the manor park, counted the annual seasons of the trees and learned a lot of valuable information about events in nature, enjoyed the unusual shapes and richness of colours. At the end of the day, we studied lichens under a microscope.
       The artist Justīne Lūce led a creative workshop where we reproduced the leaf, lichen texture, created sketches of the manor landscape, and depicted the manor house both graphically with pencils and colours.
        Pupils at the workshop led by musician Elizabeth Balčus had the opportunity to learn how house plants, leaves, lichens sound. At the end of the creative day we all listened to her musical performance.

      Many thanks to the organizers of the event, especially Dita Balčus, for the invitation to participate in the interesting and thoughtful creative event in Ziemeri Manor, where we gained new experiences and knowledge, as well as had a nice time during the event!

          On September 14, this year, Jāzepa Pīgožņa Award for New Latvian Landscape Painters took place in the city of Preiļi. Three other exhibitions related to the painter Jāzeps Pīgoznis were on view at the same time - exhibition of the 5th Jāzepa Pīgožņa Award for Latvian Landscape Painters, exhibition of Jāzepa Pīgožņa Award for New Latvian Landscape Painters and exhibition of Preiļi plein air landscape paintings. The award for new painters took place only second time and this year three students from Aluksne Art School submitted their works - Dana Deineko, Agnese Ābeltiņa and Līna Vika. Acrylic works were done in spring under the guidance of teacher Anita Vēliņa. All three works are on display in Preiļi Music and Art School Exhibition Hall and will take part in traveling tours around Latvia.
         Two students - Agnese Ābeltiņa and Līna Vika received the organizers recognition for their successful participation and creativity in the contest.

         The new school year begins before summer has even ended... all of us - teachers, students and parents have a long road ahead of us. And what kind of road it will be depends on all of us. Aluksne Art school encourages our students to have a broader view, hear more and think deeper. All of that needs serious work and attitude from all of our students.
          So that our joint cooperation would continue to be successful we invite you to review the rules found on the school's website - school regulations, school rules and discuss them with your children.
         During this school year, we have made sure that each class has its own responsible teacher, who will ensure closer communication with the students parents and help with other issues. Anita Vēliņa will take care for 6th and 7th grade but 5th grade will be in responsibility of teacher Ilze Balande-Egle. Rita Balane will be in charge of 4th grade, Lilija Kukle for 3rd grade, Elita Salaka for 2nd grade and Anda Plauma for 1st grade.
        We are happy that you have chosen professionally oriented educational program “Visual Plastic Art” of Aluksne Art school. The program provides students with the opportunity to obtain an important educational document within 7 years - a certificate of the professionally oriented educational program “Visual Plastic Art” (educational code 20V 21100 1). Experience has shown that often the child has to make a choice if he or she is interested in music, sports or has some other interest. If you feel and understand that it is too difficult for your child to study in a professionally oriented educational program, our school also has the opportunity to attend the interest-based educational program "Visual Plastic Arts" for different age groups.
       This year, we are particularly thinking about working with parents, so we will invite parents to attend meetings and participate in school board for a better opportunity to hear your suggestions, and let you know more about the specifics of school work.
         As a tradition, we continue to create a school work exhibit in the school's Exhibition Hall on Museum Night, the third Saturday in May, when you are especially welcome to see what we have been doing and what Your children have learned in our school.
        We wish a creative and colorful new school year for all of us!

Anda Plauma, Deputy Director of the Aluksne Art School