Events

*** Model agency Image Centre held a conference to discuss the Miss Georgia competition conditions on June 25. Girls aged from 17 to 25 will be able to participate in this and register at the Image Centre Office (Niko Nikolade Street number 6). The final show and concert will be held in Batumi on August 1. Miss Georgia will win a new Daewoo Matiz car and other participants will receive different gifts.

*** A 'Parisian Premiere' was held at the Amirani film theatre on June 25. The evening was dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Mikheil Kalatozishvili's film Jim Shuante. During the first part the works of famous Georgian composers Bidzina Kvernadze, Aleksi Machavariani, Sulkhan Tsintsadze and others were played by the Georgian National Symphony Orchestra, whilst the second part consisted of the screening of the film.

*** A solo exhibition by painter Lida Petukhova entitled Circle opened at the Gallery Academe+ on June 25. The artist stated that in the centre of each circle is a man. "We are isolated, no matter whether we have a family, children and so on. Each man is lonely; it is the natural condition of us. I am getting lonelier with age," he said.

*** The National Musical Centre presented prizes to the laureates of the festival The Way to Parnassus on June 25. The festival, which aims to popularise classical music, took place on June 3-8. Eleven regional music schools and one in Tbilisi were given a wonderful opportunity to introduce their talented pianists, violinists, singers etcetera. The musical schools thus shared their ideas with one another and planned further mutual visits.

*** French painter Robert Keen introduced patrons of the Georgian Art Academy to his video installation during French Cultural Week on June 29. The same installation has been exhibited in France.

*** The 8th international film festival in Torun in Poland on July 29 showed new Georgian films. The festival annually arranges such events, aimed at encouraging national cinematography, and this year's was dedicated to Georgia and Georgian films.

*** June 30 was day the Georgian National Manuscript Centre was founded and its anniversary has been celebrated by the Friends of the Centre, a society supported by several funds including the Patriarch's Fund. Deputy Chair of the Parliament of Georgia Rusudan Kervalishvili chairs the society. The society ensures the preservation of the wonderful exhibits of the institution and the further promotion of research.

Its current exhibition, called Royal Donation, is based around the unforgettable present of Niko Dadiani to the Literature Society – 169 manuscripts from his unique family collection. Alexander Kvitashvili, Minister of Healthcare, Labour and Social Insurance, also donated items from the archive of his grandfather Shota Meskhia and Mamuka Khazaradze, Founder and Supervisory Board Chairman of TBC Bank, donated the 19th century Karabadin manuscript.

At the event the centre established a new scholarship programme named after Ilia Abuladze, founder of the institution, and announced who would receive the scholarship named after Korneli Kekelidze, the Archpriest and academic, whose name the centre now carries.

*** The final of the Gogi Dolidze Georgian Song Festival was held at the Nodar Dumbadze Theatre on June 30. The festival is generally held in three rounds, during which 27 competitors aged from ten to seventeen were chosen for the final concert this year. Young people from almost all Georgia's regions took part in the final. The project was financed by the Ministry of Education and Science and the Tbilisi Mayor's Office.

*** A play called Roses of England, in which the University’s special students and children with limited abilities took part, was performed at Ilia University on July 1. University representatives said that such events are held to help reconnect disabled children to the broader society.

*** Famous Georgian guitar player Temur Kvitelashvili held a solo concert at the Tbilisi Conservatory Grand Hall on July 3. Before the event Kvitelashvili had given a concert in America at Carnegie Hall. The same repertoire was performed for Georgian listeners.

*** On July 4 TBC Bank revealed the prizewinners of the 2010 edition of the annual Saba Literary Awards. This eighth competition took place in June 2010 and revealed the best literary works and best authors of 2009. All literary works published in 2009 were considered for the awards, including novels, prose collections, collections of poems and plays and Georgian translations of foreign works, literary criticism and documentary prose.

Awards were given for the best novel, best collection of poems, best prose work, best translation, best play, best literary criticism, essay or documentary prose work of the year as well as best debut and special contribution to the development of Georgian literature. Apart from special prizes, the winners received monetary awards.

The total prize fund amounted to GEL 36,000. The winners were given their awards by TBC Bank.

*** A book dedicated to Georgia’s Patriarch Ilia II called Letters to the Patriarch was presented at the Patriarchate on July 5, alongside a book on how the Holy Trinity Cathedral was built. Letters to the Patriarch consists of 368 pages and has 110 authors, some of whom are ecclesiastics and some public figures.

*** An exhibition entitled Georgian Jews - Their History and Culture was opened at Georgia’s Art Museum on July 6. More than 100 examples of the Jewish material and cultural inheritance, national costumes, photos, religious and other objects are on display until September 1.