Yearbook called Lighthouse for the year 2014 is published

You will find this yearbook Lighthouse in the e-form on the pages of our website HERE or in printed form at the registered office of CIVS. In the editorial of this yearbook Lighthouse the directress of CIVS Milina Sklabinská summarized the last years activities as follows:

Dear devotees of Vojvodina's Slovak culture:

The year 2014 was the sixth year of CIVS active work. Thanks to thoughtful, purposeful and consistent work of our professional team and extensive network of external partners we brought to the public a series of valuable cultural achievements. Our yearbooks serve to a purpose to remember those achievements and to testify in Slovak and Serbian language with words and images about the unique culture of Vojvodina's Slovaks.

Yes, the workers of CIVS think that the culture of Vojvodina's Slovaks is unique and unrepeatable and that is the basis in the constitution of our strategic and development plans. Its uniqueness can be seen everywhere on folk costume embroidery, in ornaments of folk architecture, in Pazova's singing or "meškuvaní" (accordions) from Aradáč, in images of naive painters, in our customs, traditions and ceremonies. Its uniqueness is related to the phenomenon of persistence: to counteract different snares with the willpower and spirit. Contemporary culture is based on a rich cultural heritage, especially the exceptional personalities who met this task in the past. Thanks to such personalities we now know the historical context, we know how they lived, what they struggled with, what effort was taken to build a church, schools, to begin to associate in educational and cultural activities, and finally to indicate theatrical performances, make documentaries, prepare radio broadcastings, write most diverse musical genres, paint images of a unique artistic poetics, write numerous book publications of poetry, prose, literary criticism or works for children. We appreciate their range of publishing activities, and not least the setup for the cultural and artistic programs, festivals and events inspired by Slovak cultural code in Vojvodina.

I would argue that if we haven't systematized this broad area with texts, photos and video materials on our website www.slovackizavod.org.rs, comprehensiveness and complexity of Vojvodina's Slovak culture would be only known by several experts who are constantly devoted to this topic. Broader public would be deprived of valuable informations from this field. Daily we have the opportunity to ascertain about this fact by getting lots of e-mails and phone calls from many different places with proposals for cooperation, invitations to different intercultural events, compliments and letters of support from Slovakia and from Slovaks living abroad or the Serbian media and public who show interest in the topics or programmes that we offer. We are aware of the fact that we managed to systematize only part of this extensive material. Nevertheless I would like to state that we acknowledge the benefits and the meaning that our work contributes to whole Slovak community.

Our mission is to care about every branch of Slovak culture. That’s why we will continue to think about the whole minority and tirelessly support those who are making significant efforts in the local environment so that the Slovak language is used in speaking, singing, recitation, that there would be theater plays played in Slovak language and that Vojvodina Slovaks remain part of the society that our fellow citizens in Serbia are rightfully proud of.