Winners of the Aurora Creative Contest were named on May 1, 2017. Arpi Ghazaryan, a 7-year-old student at the Henrik Igityan Yerevan National Art Center was awarded the first prize in the Aurora Creative Contest. Sofya Yakovleva, a 13-year-old student of Saratov Children’s Art Studio, Russia, took the second place in the Contest, while Anna Kostanyan, an 11-year-old student at Gasparyan Art Studio, came the third.

As per the professional jury’s decision, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative granted special awards to two participants – Jasmina Hovhannisyan (11 years old, Nerkin Getashen village, Armenia) and Rudolf Avanesyan (14 years old, Yerevan, Armenia).

The winners not only took home prizes, but also received an invitation to attend the 2017 Aurora Prize Ceremony to be held on May 28 in Yerevan, Armenia.

“The number of children participating in the Contest was quite impressive. The Contest gave them an opportunity to understand the value of their works. They learned they were doing something important and they were encouraged. Submitted artworks were evaluated based on their compliance to the theme of the Contest as well as the quality of the work itself. All works were excellent but we still had to choose the best ones. The children who took part in the Contest are all winners”, stated artist Tigran Matulyan, Aurora Creative Contest Jury Member.

The awarding ceremony of the winners of the Aurora Creative Contest took place in Yerevan Hovhannes Tumanyan Museum during the opening of the exhibition featuring the best 63 works submitted for the Contest. The exhibition will be open through late May until the end of the Aurora Prize weekend.

Children aged from 7 to 14 took part in the Aurora Creative Contest announced in January 2017. More than thousand pieces of artwork were submitted to the Contest from Armenia, Artsakh, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Turkey, USA, Canada, Venezuela and France.