October 22

The National Art Dance Foundation and Belgrade Dance Festival, with the support of the Art Mentor Foundation of Lucerne and the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government of the Republic of Serbia, continued this year’s Dance Caravan project. This time, the program covered 10 cities in Serbia and Nis was one of them. On the big stage of the Army House, ballet worshipers could enjoy a ballet gala concert with popular variations of the classical repertoire performed by young dancers, students of Serbian and Italian ballet schools and champions of the Belgrade National Theater Ballet, Ana Pavlovic and Jovan Veselinovic. The Deputy Mayor of Niš Milos Bandur, as well as a large number of art lovers and the students of Nis schools attended the gala concert.

October 21

Russian choir Chapel of Boys and Young Men of the Sverdlovsk State Children’s Philharmonic Orchestra from Yekaterinburg, led by artistic director, Friedrich Weisheim, held a festive concert in front of a packed hall of the National Theater in Niš. The performance of one of the most famous choirs of this type in the world was made possible by the Company NIS. Music lovers and connoisseurs, academics, students, high school and elementary students, as well as many other interested citizens, welcomed the choir with applause and enjoyed the performance of the choir who, by their performance, won the sympathies of the whole world. The concert was attended by Nis City Deputy Mayor Milos Bandjur and the representatives of NIS Company. “We are very grateful for the love Serbia has for Russia, our people, music and song. Thanks to NIS Company we came to Serbia for the first time in 2016, and now we are here again and we are very happy that our choir started its second visit to Serbia in Nis, because this city has a special soul. We would like to thank everyone who came to support us and to share our energy and emotions with us,”said Natalia Podkoritova, Deputy Director of the Sverdlovsk Children’s Philharmonic. Alexei Chernikov addressed the audience on the behalf of the NIS Company. “It is a great honor and pleasure to welcome you on behalf of NIS Company, which made this concert possible. Tonight’s concert is our gift to you all. We are glad that you can attend something that none of us have the opportunity to hear every day, “Chernikov said.

October 17

In September 2017, the National Dance Art Foundation and the Belgrade Dance Festival, with the support of the Art Mentor Foundation of Lucerne and the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government of the Republic of Serbia, started the implementation of the Dance Caravan project. The program covered 15 cities in Serbia, and the reactions of the audience exceeded the expectations of the organizers. That is why the Art Mentor Foundation has supported the second edition of this multidisciplinary project, which aims to bring classical ballet and contemporary dance to all interested participants and visitors through various activities. A total of 10 cities during 2019 and 2020 will host the 2^nd Dance Caravan. The Dance Caravan is intended for the education and scholarship of talents. It is a project that involves a whole new audience in ballet and contemporary dance, and at the same time encourages local organizations to develop a production network and to lay the foundations of the creative industries, viewing cultural offerings as valuable tourism potential. Through intensive Dance Caravan programs, the level of interest of the audience, the possibility of further inclusion of talented children in various educational programs, as well as the technical capacities for establishing domestic and foreign guest performances are reviewed. The Dance Caravan program includes exhibitions, film programs, presentations, performances and gala concerts performed by ballet champions and soloists, as well as students of ballet schools from Belgrade and Rome. It brings ballet courses and contemporary dance to all generations, ending with open presentations. For the realization of this project, the National Dance Art Foundation uses a large part of its own resources, from film and photo archives, to the involvement of professionals of different professions, i.e. numerous dancers, choreographers, educators, concert historians, composers, ballet critics, ballet school students… All the programs are free to the audience, and the goal is for the planned activities in each city to gather visitors and participants of all generations. The Dance Caravan will be held in Niš on October 21 at the Army House. The program of the performances in Nis includes – La Vie Parisian performed by young dancers, the students of Italian and Serbian ballet schools, ages 10 to 16. Special guests of this performance are the champions of the Ballet of the National Theater in Belgrade, Ana Pavlovic and Jovan Veselinovic. The costumes are signed by Mima Madžarac and the assistant choreographer is Marija Janković. The program starts at 5pm and a Gala concert is scheduled from 7pm.

October 7

As part of the “Joy of Europe” even the reception was organized for the children participating in the festival. The participants of this traditional event were received by Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatovic who welcomed all guests and children performing in Nis. The reception was also attended by the director of Children’s Cultural Center of Belgrade Mr. Minja Saturday and the director of the Center for Tradition and Spirituality from Nis Mr. Miljko Petrovic. Joy of Europe is the largest and oldest international event for children’s creativity, celebrating its 50^th anniversary this year. At the beginning of October, children from European countries arrived to Belgrade to sing, act, and, above all, to socialize and have fun.

September 13

The representatives of the City of Nis attended the international meeting in Sliven, Bulgaria, within the project “United Europe – Security, Solidarity and Stability”, supported through program “Europe for Citizens”. The project was implemented through the partnership of Sliven, Nis and Bydgoszcz from Poland. After presenting the cities of Sliven (Bulgaria), Bydgoszcz (Poland) and Nis (Serbia), the Mayor of Sliven Stefan Radev, Assistant Mayor of Nis Marina Kostic and Assistant Mayor of Bydgoszcz Joanna Zataj Ross signed the letter of intent outlining the goals of future cooperation between these cities. The event was attended by the first advisor at the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia in Sofia Ms. Gordana Bozic, a member of the Nis City Council Slavoljub Savic, the director of PUC Medijana Dragoslav Pavlovic, who presented Nis potentials prepared by the Nis City Office for Local Economic Development and Projects, the president of Sliven City Municipality Dimitar Mitev, deputy provincial governor of Sliven district Kamen Kostov and the representatives of administration, educational and cultural institutions, universities, chamber of commerce, local and regional development agencies, cultural centers, non-profit organizations and the media of these three cities.

During the visit three forums were implemented in the fields of culture, youth and economy. On the second day, at a cultural forum, the participants presented the cultural, historical and tourist heritage of their cities. The Secretary of the Secretariat for Culture and Information of the City of Nis Aleksandra Radosavljevic presented international events that are of great importance for the City of Nis with short films about those city events. Tamara Ciric, from the Secretariat for Culture and Information, presented the cultural and historical heritage of our city with the support of all present representatives of Nis cultural institutions. The conclusion of the cultural forum is that there are good grounds for successful partnership and cultural cooperation between the three participating cities. The presentation of the members of the Nis Youth Council discussed strategic documents on the basis of which youth policies are implemented in Nis, with the aim of improving the position of young people in the city and preventing young people leaving Niš, such as scholarships for the best students and athletes, etc. This topic was interesting for all three cities because they all face the same problem of young people leaving to live and work abroad. Nis Economic Delegation was led by the Speaker of the Parliament of the Regional Chamber of Commerce Nis Mr. Andrija Radojicic and the Director of the Regional Chamber of Commerce Nis, Aleksandar Milicevic. Current economic trends tourism and traffic potentials of the Nisava, Pirot and Toplica administrative districts are presented. Within the business meetings, which were also organized within the business forum, the economic and investment potentials of Nis and the region were presented, as well as the planned investments that are underway. A delegation of businessmen held meetings with businessmen from Sliven, Sofia, Yambol and Bydgoszcz, and visited the most prominent companies operating successfully in Sliven.

September 10

The delegation of the City of Nis participated in the Second International Forum of Old Towns in the Russian city of Ryazan, which was held under the auspices of the Committee of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Ryazan region. The requirement for participation in this Forum was that the city was over 500 years old. The main topics of the Forum were architecture, history, cultural heritage, theater, photography and gastronomic tourism, and the first session of the Association of Old Towns was held during this event. Representatives of the City of Nis participated in the work of the Forum on three topics – possibilities and directions of cooperation of ancient cities, Nis cultural heritage during its two thousand years of existence and implementation of measures for the improvement of squares, river banks, streets, pedestrian zones, parks and other public areas. The organizers pointed out that the holding of this Forum should serve to strengthen and develop cultural links between cities, regions and countries.

September 9

Nis City Council Member in charge of culture Jelena Mitrovski received participants of the Art Colony “Sićevo 2019” at City Hall today. Sićevo Art Colony is the oldest art colony in the Balkans. It was founded in 1905 by the idea and dedication of Serbian painter Nadezda Petrovic. Because of their extraordinary beauty, the landscapes of Siceva are an inspiration not only to painters but also to writers and all nature lovers. This year, the colony brought together 11 participants from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Bulgaria and Montenegro. The works will be presented by: Vukasin Stankovic and Vladica Ristic (Nis), Nikola Vukosavljevic, Aleksandar Cvetkovic and Milica Rakic ​​(Belgrade), Pavle Popovic (Kraljevo), Milena Tosic (Vranje), Mihaela Ivanova (Bulgaria), Boris Eremic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) , Biljana Kekovic (Montenegro) and Giuseppe Gonela (Germany). The 55^th edition of the Art Colony Sićevo is organized by the Gallery of Contemporary Arts, supported by by the City of Niš.

September 9

The manifestation of Republika Srpska Days in Serbia for the seventh consecutive year began with a festive academy on the Grand Stage of the National Theater in Belgrade. The event, which will promote culture, economy, science and art in the 21 cities of our country by September 10, was opened by Milorad Dodik, the Serbian member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On this occasion he asked for support for the event to be called “Days of Republika Srpska and Serbia” in the future. The name, as Dodik has explained, refers to the unity that must be nurtured, adding that Republika Srpska has all the elements of statehood and meets all the criteria for being internationally verified as a state. In Niš, the Speaker of Nis City Assembly, Rade Rajković, met with the Speaker of the Republika Srpska National Assembly, Nedeljko Čubrilović, and his associates. They discussed the improvement of cooperation between the city and Republika Srpska, and it was pointed out that the cooperation so far was excellent due to personal commitment of the two presidents. The delegation led by National Assembly Speaker Nedeljko Cubrilovic visited some of the most important monuments of history in Nis: the archeological site of the Mediana, the  Skull Tower and the monument dedicated to duke Stevan Sindjelic. The well-received and applauded theater performance by National Theatre from Banja Luka was a successful end to both the visit of the Republika Srpska delegation “Days of Republika Srpska in Serbia” event.

September 3

2019 Sićevo Art Colony was opened for the 55^th time. The colony was officially opened by Nis City Council Member Jelena Mitrovski, who emphasized that this art event was of great importance for Niš and that it has been gathering significant artists from Serbia and the world over the years. The founder of the colony is the famous Serbian painter Nadezda Petrovic, who in 1905 brought together colleagues from studios in Munich: Jakopič, Grohar, Vesel, Vučetić and Meštrović. Thus, she and her colleagues from Croatia and Slovenia formed the First Yugoslav Art Colony. Niš artists renewed the idea of ​​a colony in 1964, and ever since it has been held continuously in Sićevo. This year the colony will bring together 11 participants from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Bulgaria and Montenegro. The works will be presented by: Vukasin Stankovic and Vladica Ristic (Nis), Nikola Vukosavljevic, Aleksandar Cvetkovic and Milica Rakic ​​(Belgrade), Pavle Popovic (Kraljevo), Milena Tosic (Vranje), Mihaela Ivanova (Bulgaria), Boris Eremic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) , Biljana Kekovic (Montenegro), Giuseppe Gonela (Germany).

June 17

The Sixth International Festival of Choir Spiritual Music “Edict of Music” began at Saint Sava’s Hall. The festival was opened by Nis City Mayor Darko Bulatović, who welcomed the guests, and the audience was addressed by the Bishop of Nis Arsenije.  “Looking back we can see that the need of a man to address the God in hymns is as old as his need for the prayer. By harmonious ordering of words and melodic chanting and music, mankind sought its path to the Lord from the moment in which the man felt the need to pray”, said Bishop of Nis Arsenije. “Here we are for the sixth time, I would say with the higher artistic and every other level, at the Edict of Music Festival, the pride of our city. Thank you all for everything you do and contribute to the cultural life of our city”, said Mayor Bulatovic. At the Sixth International Festival of Choral Spiritual Music “Edict of Music” 19 choirs from 11 countries from three continents are participating, and this time guests came from North and South America. These days about 500 singers from all over the world will sing in Nis.