The traditional Klidonas Festival in Santorini inspired Anna Antoniadis, a 10-year-old student who participated at the end of last year in the 20th Biennial World Children’s Art Exhibition, held every two years in Japan.
In a note accompanying her painting entitled “Traditional Festival of Santorini”, Anna, a sixth grade student this year at Kamari Elementary School, wrote: “Every year on June 23, the Klidonas festival is held here in Santorini. The islanders light fires and jump over them to drive away evil. Then people dance. There is plenty of joy, food and lots of local wine. It is a very beautiful festival and has been around for many years.”
27,599 children from different countries participated in the competition and the work of young Anna was among the Kanagawa Prize winners. Five more children from Santorini participated in the competition, all students of the Art Team of Santorini’s (ART.TOS) art workshops, under the supervision of the visual artists Georgia Trypsianis and Christos-Cesario-Antoniadis.
The award-winning children’s works are set to travel to various well-known galleries and cultural sites around the world next year, their final destination being the Children’s Museum of Art in Kanagawa, where catalogs, calendars and other souvenirs will be created inspired by them.
It is worth noting that in the institution’s forty-year history, Anna Antoniadis is the twelfth child from Greece to win a prize.