Magnezit is not only about the power of mind, labor and technology; not only the production of the world's best refractory products. Magnezit is producing inspiration, as you can see by visiting the new exhibition. 

The opening of the exposition "In helmets and paints. Drawing Magnezit and Satka" took place in the Magnezit museum yesterday, where the works of students of Children's Art Schools of the region were presented. The exposition is the result of the participation of children in art projects and creative workshops organized in 2016-2020 by the Sobranie Fund with the support of the Magnezit Group: “My Satka”, “Satka: Crossroads”, Satka Street Art Fest, the educational program “Steps of Enlightenment” and many others. 

These four years were eventful and rich in social and cultural events that became a source of new knowledge and inspiration for the younger generation of artists. Students and teachers of Children's Art Schools visited exhibitions, lectures, creative meetings and master classes by Peter Erschmann (a media artist from Switzerland), Valentin Boiangiu (British artist), Valentin Dmitriev (a professor of the Moscow State Stroganov Academy of Design and Applied Arts, a member of the Russian Association of Artists), Lukia Murina and Nikolai Isaev (artists from Tomsk), Alexander Shilov (landscape painter), Irina Miklushevskaya (an artist, an art history PhD), Anastasia Arkhipova (an illustrator), Liu Zi Yu (Chinese artist) and many others.

- Children are very excited getting an invitation to master classes. Usually senior students participate in such field classes, and then they tell and show everything in detail to younger students. The children are growing up, and next time another group is invited to a meeting with the artists. They really need such master classes! After that they come to school with completely different views, think differently, speak and relate to art in a completely different way, - say Irina Nazhipova and Elena Maksimova, teachers of the art department of the Mezhevoy Children's Art School. - When teachers from Stroganovka came, all the students wanted to try themselves in Chinese painting, to paint with large brushes. Then we opened an exhibition of works created at the master classes by Liu Zi Yu at our school, which was visited by everyone - not only by children, but also by their parents. Everyone liked it so much that we later bought brushes for painting guó huà and tried to draw on tracing paper. Of course, it differs from rice paper in texture, but everything new is always interesting. Moreover, the students themselves showed the drawing technique: the elders taught the younger ones how to hold a brush, what pressure to do, how to draw circles... We, the teachers, ourselves experienced such an excitement at all master classes, caught every word, followed every movement... There left so many memories and impressions! One can't tell in one meeting!

Acknowledged masters in various genres of art introduced the young generation to new techniques and shared the achievements and secrets of their work. For example, they demonstrated how to create an avant-garde collage from photographs of an old magazine, to make a postcard-linocut, or to draw a transparent dragonfly in the style of guó huà with ink. Together with famous artists, the children made mosaics from seashells, river pebbles and magnesite, created street paintings, went to the plein-air - they painted landscapes on the banks of the Ai River and industrial views of the Satka production site of the Magnezit Group. The results of these projects are presented at a new exhibition. 

The exposition clearly “sounds” the theme of producing inspiration, which we talked about at the very beginning. It is presented not only in the works that children devoted to the beauties and contrasts of the industrialism of our city, but also in drawings based on the works of artists: frescoes on the wall of the office of the Magnezit Group, murals in the Western microdistrict and in the center of Satka, as well as a large-scale painting of the Hangar (the former garage of BelAZ). Are you excited to see how the colors and rhythms of avant-garde and street art were reflected in children's creativity? Come to the exhibition and you will see and experience everything yourself! 

The exposition is open until May 17. You can visit it yourself or order an excursion (registration by phone: 9-46-84, 9-47-31). 

Opening hours of the Magnezit Museum: Monday - Friday from 9 am to 5 pm without a break; Saturday, Sunday - by prior arrangement.

From the Magnezitovets web resource. Photo by Vasily Maximov.