The city of Celje is situated at the confluence of the Savinja and the Voglajna rivers in the central region of Slovenia. Its stirring history was marked most by the Counts of Celje, since 1436 the Princes of Celje, who inherited the castle building from the Vovbržani in the first half of 14th century. Despite of the early death of the last Prince Ulrik II in 1456, who had no descendants, they had a significant impact on the world's history, and their residence, the Old Castle of Celje, has been preserved until recent times. On 11th April 1451 the city of Celje was granted the city rights by the mighty Friderik 11. In one part of the fortress or castle there is the only permanent art gallery in Slovenia, dedicated to art creativity of children and young people, called The Gallery of Children's Art Works. On 250 square meters there are paintings, graphics, sculptures and photographs made by young artists from all continents. The Gallery was founded by Mihailo Lišanin supported by the Municipality of Celje.

The Gallery of Youn people's Art Works Celje is the only permanent gallery in Slovenia earmarked for young artists up to the age of 20 from all over the world. It is also the only private gallery in Europe, with the only private international competition for art works of young artists in the world.
The competition, according to the number of participating countries, is one of the fifteen biggest in the world. The collection of art works on the theme "The Horse" includes 45,000 art works from 55 countries and it will be in the Guinness Book of Records this year, as the biggest collection of the sort. There are more than 100,000 art works from 70 countries in the gallery archives. The international competition is celebrating the 10th, and the gallery the 5th anniversary this year.
During this period we have prepared 131 exhibitions (45 of them abroad) in 22 countries all over the world (France, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Belarus, Indonesia, USA, Turkey, Argentina, Russia, Bulgaria, Italy, Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, India, Moldova, Romania, Cyprus and Slovenia).

The gallery possesses about 11,000 art works on the theme "The Still Life" from 48 countries, from all five continents. More than 12,000 people visit the gallery each year, twenty percent of them are from abroad. The foreign visitors are very proud when they see an artwork from their country. Since the year 2000 we have collected all the articles, TV and radio shows about the gallery and its founder. There are over 700 articles in 30 languages and 92 TV and radio shows from 11 countries. The founder of the gallery and author of many different projects is invited by 14 foreign ambassadors to their national holidays every year. The exhibitions are usually opened by the mayors or ambassadors of foreign countries.

"THE WORLD OF ART" magazine is designed for children, young artists and academic artists. It contains information about exhibitions, results, international competitions and other galleries. Its readers can be found in 26 countries on all the continents. It is sent to many art schools in developing countries as a small contribution to their art knowledge and development. The magazine represents their window to the world of art and young artists of other countries.
The founder of the Gallery, of the International competition and "The World of Art" magazine is Mr. Mihailo Lišanin who has already received a lot of recognition from all over the world for promoting the art of young people. He received many foreign awards such as commemorative medal from the Russian Ministry of Culture, golden key of an honorary guest of Villa Constitucion, Argentina , unique diploma of the Ministry of Education of Turkey and a bronze coat of arms of the Municipality of Celje in Slovenia.

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Exhibitions in year 2006

Exhibitions in year 2007

Exhibitions in year 2008

Exhibitions in year 2009

11^th International Competition of magazine The World of Art on theme "Who am I" - Results

12^th International Competition on theme "Who am I? Who are my people?" - Results

13^thInternational Competition on theme "Who am I? Who are my people?" - Results

14th International Competition on theme "Who am I? Who are my people?" - Results

15. International Competition on the theme “Ethnological dresses and folklore dances of my people?” – Results

CELJE, SLOVENIA - IMPORTANT NOTICE!
WORLD INFORMATION CENTRE OF YOUNG PEOPLE'S INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS FOR ART