On June 1, 2021, O.O.Osmerkin Art-Memorial Museum hosted an event on the occasion of the awarding of the winners of the Art Competition “Youth Palette” named after Leonid Bondar to International Children’s Day in 2021. The theme of the competition was “I love Ukraine!”; it was dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the independence of Ukraine. Also, a presentation of the exhibition of works of the winners and participants of the competition was held. The exposition of the exhibition consisted of more than 50 works – numerous drawings made with watercolors and gouache, pencils, pastel, as well as decorative works in different techniques: carpets, sculpture compositions from salt dough, papier-mache, items from textile and natural materials.
    The competition was held among the following kinds of visual art: painting, graphic, sculpture, decorative and applied art. 187 works made by 168 participants were applied for the competition. The participants were pupils of the following educational institutions of the town of Kropyvnytskyi: Art School named after Oleksandr Osmerkin, Children’s School of Art, clubs and studios of visual and decorative and applied art of the Gymnasium named after Taras Shevchenko, named after Oleksandr Pushkin, and Cossacks Gymnasium, educational complex No.6, 24, 35, and “Mriia”, the Regional and Town Centers of Children’s and Youth Creative Work, private art studio “Art-time”, as well as Central Ukrainian State Pedagogical University named after Volodymyr Vynnychenko (Painting and Graphic Work Subdepartment of the Department of Arts), Kropyvnytskyi Professional College of Construction (the Department of Architecture and Management), Open International University of Human Development “Ukraine”, and the College “University of Modern Knowledge” (special filed “design”). The competition goes beyond the town level. Pupils and students from the region – Mykhailivka Educational Complex of Oleksandrivka district of the Kirovohrad Oblast, as well as from the other regions of Ukraine – art class of Tarashchanka Children’s Music School of the Kyiv Oblast and Kyiv State Academy of Decorative and Applied Art and Design named after Mykhailo Boichuk participated in it.
    The creative works were applied both via electronic means and personally. Such mixed format was due to the lockdown restrictions. But this fact didn’t influence the number of the participants as well as drawing and decorative works applied for the competition. The number was at the level of the previous years.
According to the decision of the jury of the competition, the winners became 30 participants aged between 7-22 years. Their works were awarded Diplomas of 1st, 2nd, 3rd degrees in the three nominations: 1st – pupils of the primary grades of the specialized art educational institutions, schools of aesthetic education; 2nd – pupils of the art studios and classes of visual art of comprehensive educational institutions; 3rd – students of higher educational institutions of art and nonscience field according to the age categories. Letters of Acknowledgement and Certificates from the members of the jury and the organizing committee were awarded to 61 participants in all the nominations. The teachers, whose students became the winners of the competition, also received Letters of Acknowledgement.
    All the winners received special prizes, provided by the Department of Culture and Tourism of Kropyvnytskyi City Council – gouache, watercolor, and acrylic paints, brushes, pastel, albums, and coloring book “Along the Streets of our Town”. The diploma winners also received the traditional present – a themed booklet with the reproduction of their works.
    This year awarding of Diplomas, Letters of Acknowledgement, and Certificates was planned to be held open-air. The organizers exhibited the works of the winners outside the museum but the rain made adjustments and the event was held in the memorial hall of the museum according to all the epidemic-prevention rules – social distancing and face-mask requirements.
    The winners of the competition and their teachers were awarded by the head of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Kropyvnytskyi City Council Anna Nazarets, the head of the jury, the leading researcher of the museum, Merited Artist of Ukraine Andrii Nadezhdin, and the members of the jury – Ph.D. in Art History, associate professor of the Department of Arts of the Central Ukrainian State Pedagogical University named after V.Vynnychenko Olena Kyrychenko, the head of the Regional Organization of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine Andrii Khvorost, and a famous artist, a member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine Liudmyla Demydenko.
    The head of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Kropyvnytskyi City Council Anna Nazarets and the head of the Regional Organization of the National Union of   Artists of Ukraine Andrii Khvorost made their congratulatory speeches. Before the official part of the event, the head of the jury, the leading researcher of the museum, Merited Artist of Ukraine Andrii Nadezhdin told about the museum as well as about the artist and pedagogue Leonid Bondar, after whom the competition was named.
    Everybody present had a festive mood. The youngest participant of the competition, the 7 years old Sofiika Hordova from the Gymnasium named after Taras Shevchenko, when receiving her Diploma of the 2nd degree for her drawing “I am a small Ukrainian girl”, as a true artist, emotionally recited a poem Wings by Lina Kostenko.
    The displayed exhibition of works of the winners of the competition became a photo zone. The students and their teachers enjoyed taking pictures by their works.