A Word from the Dean

We, the artists, are the people of  inspiration and enthusiasm. This day, our anniversary celebration, and everyone in this Hall today, are the faithful friends who did not mind either bad weather or the famous South. You have brought in the sun on this solemn day with your arrival. Let me tell you something about us, the teachers and students of the Faculty of Arts, about our mission and perspective, for the benefit of our city and state, which we often represent.When we are young, we are surrounded by people in whom we believe by birth. Later, one learns to believe in God, and someone to believe in people. And after some time, the faith in the people wavers, whereas the faith in oneself strengthens. Thus the world functions.
And we, the artists, believe in God, and people and ourselves.
Thus, the finest sensors of the artistic souls are reached. These natures are more sensitive to the light and are mostly moving modestly and unobtrusively. They are preparing themselves for a great light for years, slowly, so as not to be exhausted by a premature flash of the glory. However, the glory is a new awakening, returning to the divine and among the people.
The artists can easily look forward to you. The applause, a word of praise and a smile, would be a sufficient compensation for all creative wanderings, imagination and creative burnout. Sharing their work with the audience makes them happy, releasing in that way the space inside themselves for a new creative act. Only such an exchange with the audience means the true art. And this city has the consistently nourished audience.
What is needed to more fully introduce the art into the environment? The creative environment is necessary. The painters would like to intersperse the paint on the canvas, to reach the infinity by the brushes and the chisel. The musicians would like to spend hours learning about the possibilities and mysteries of their instruments until they speak their own language and reach the aesthetics of a given moment, and the applied artists would like to strive to the new creative ideas and the technologies of the 21^st century. The drama lacks for the quartet. The arts are different, but one thing is in common and inherent – the space and the tools.
They have all cared about us in the first years. It was a triumph of speed, and then they have let us grow the way we know. Somehow, we have managed and grown up. Perhaps it has not been quite observed that we have built a Temple of Art, that the world has recognized us and rejoiced for us. We have been rewarded the most prestigious awards by today^,s most renowned and the most eminent artists, we have become the laureates and severe professionals for them. We have been included in the commissions and juries of the major national and international competitions. We have finished schools both in the country and abroad, learnt from the best, kept in touch with them, but we have always been moving their criteria in talent, expression, composition and emotion. At the same time we are shaping, educating, and making our students be stronger, more persistent and better profiles than we are. We are teaching them not to create because they want to, but because they have to! In just 10 years, Niš as the University city, has got as a gift the institution of education, arts and culture, going well beyond the years of its existence.
We are the offsprings of those who had absorbed the colours of their time and encoded them into us. Andrić, Radojica, Špaja, Dejanko, Rade, Seša, Kostić, Djordjević, Mitić, Mare, Mladja and many other beacons of the city culture, had been making the Music, Art and Drama school, International Choral Festival (IHS) and Niš International Music Festival (NIMUS), The Symphony Orchestra, the Theatres, the Art colony of Sićevo, Niš Film Festival… Thus coded, supported by the older and more powerful institutions of education and culture of Serbia, on the  laid foundations we have built the Higher Music School, the Study groups at the Faculty of Philosophy and modified them into the Faculty of Arts… We have been strengthened by the Students’ Cultural Center, Constantinus, Naissus Guitar, the Music Edict, the Philharmony of the  young, Concertante, the Trio Anima, the Painting colonies of Recognition, Mosaics, Graphics and Stained glasses, concerts with the works of the greats. We have been already preparing the Opera and the Orchestra of tolerance towards the world’s significant anniversary of the Edict of Milan. We are ready to welcome the world, artists and colleagues from the European cities, to perform the artistic programs in honor of the Emperor Constantine. The artists do not recognize the borders, but speak the same language and are the messengers of the Universe. We are convinced that we will represent in the best way Niš and Serbia, and crucially change the image of this part of the Balkans.
But where do we get the power?
The students of the Faculty of Arts are our strength. They are cheering us to live, to believe and to hope. Attached to their youth, light and purity, we are joining, creating, weaving, complementing and planning. We have grown up, some will soon retire, but work with the same enthusiasm as at the beginning of the career.
Just give us the impuls, a tiny bit of a rainbow … and we will paint the rest ourselves.
We need to be convinced that we are wanted, that we are needed and we will put ourselves in your palm. Look at us! Look deeper into our eyes – We are the ambassadors of your souls.
We are happy to share this great day with all of you and we solemnly announce the beginning of a new decade of the development of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Niš.