12 THE MONGOL MESSENGER

ART & CULTURE

Friday, March 01 , 2013

ARTS COUNCIL OF MONGOLIA

Museum in a Box Project Kicks-off
For three years, the Arts Council of Mongolia has collaborated with Choijin Lama Temple Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts on the Museum in a Box educational project, which aims to transmit cultural heritage to children and to enrich the museums educational outreach program for increased sustainable development of museum institutions. This project provides knowledge about tangible and intangible cultural heritage for children and youth and gives them pride in their history and culture through participatory exercises in traditional handicraft and fine arts as well as an improved aesthetic appreciation of art. With funding from the Petrovis Company in 2012, the ACM and Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts examined the museums collections and made replicas of 12 representative pieces from about 20 museum displays to be included in the traveling museum box, targeted to appeal to children and their educational background. They also produced a museum guidebook for the children in collaboration with teachers and scholars. The projects mini-exhibits include

School children examine replicas of museum pieces along with lessons by museum staff replicas from international awardwinning sculptor Ts. Batmunkh (gold and silver prize recipient of the Budweiser International Snow Sculpture competition) and colleagues, including carvings and other artifacts. The main content of the course and the guidebook was developed by museum staff with assistance from an author of childrens books, the Museum Development Association, and the Gegeerel Education Center. On February 28, the first Museum in a Box class was held at the Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts where museum staff taught teach secondary school students. During the 2013-2014 school year, the Museum in a Box will travel to schools in remote cities and communities to provide children with a museum experience to access their cultural heritage.

Scaled-down version of ancient artifacts

Dreamers Day: Art house Film Screenings

By Teresa Nichols The Dreamers Day series is run by AltanKhalis (Golden Film) NGO and hosted by the Arts Council of Mongolia at the Red Ger Art Gallery at Central Khan Bank. The mission of AltanKhalis is to advocate and support classic and art house filmmakers. Dreamers Day had its first showing on September 17, 2009 and since then it has screened 123 films free of charge. Art house films from around the world are shown in their original language with Mongolian subtitles and there is a discussion period after each showing. The February 23rd screening was Paper Moon, a 1973 American film directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Before the screening, an experimental short film Nureev by Mongolian director HosErdene was shown, and then the director answered questions. Set primarily in a basement where Hos-Erdene isolated himself for four months to reflect, the piece was an interesting (if jarring) visualization of the artistic process. Paper Moon is a crime-drama film centered around a con man and a young girl who may or may not be his orphaned daughter, set during the Great Depression of the 1930s and starring real-life father and daughter actors Ryan and Tatum ONeal. The next showing of Dreamers Day will be on March 1st at 10 pm and will show the Dog Star Man series of 5 short experimental pieces by Director Stan Brakhage. The March 9th showing will be Farewell My Concubine, a Chinese film directed by Chen Kaige. Two big upcoming events on March 16th are the Future Shorts: Winter collection of short films from around the world. Future Shorts: Winter will also take place at the Red Ger Art Gallery and will sell special event tickets for Tgs5,000. On March 25-28 the Francophone Film Festival will take place in collaboration with Alliance Francaise de Mongolia. For more information, www.facebook. com/AltanKhalis and their website page on the Dreamers Day series http://artfilm. mn/list/1/ are updated regularly.

Compositions -2013; Percussion Ensemble Concert

award at the 2010 music festival and in 2012 music teacher B. Zorig was awarded the Entrepreneur 2012 Prize by the Mongolian National Culture and Arts Division. In 2012, the Ensemble consisting of 18 talented young performers and their teacher participated in the 10th UNESCO Childrens Performing Arts Festival of East Asia in the Silver Swallow pavilion. The Percussion Ensemble has held Compositions concerts annually for the last six years, beginning in 2007. The performance consists of 17 pieces of world and national classical music, and during the first act, pieces are performed from world-famous artists like D. Mancini, E. Morricone, Floyd Werle, and Eyles. The second act includes pieces by Mongolian musicians N. Jantsannorov, L. Murdorj, and B. Zorigt as well as new compositions. Compositions 2013 is supported by B. Bold, Ch. Sainzaya, Modern Nomads restaurant and Xanadu Wines, with media support from NTN TV, Mongol HD TV, gogo.mn, and news.mn to present enjoyable performances for the public.

On March 15th and 16th at 7 pm, the Arts Council of Mongolia is organizing the Music and Dance Colleges Percussion Ensemble Concert entitled Compositions 2013, which will be performed at the State Philharmonic to promote world and national classic music in the community. The Music and Dance Colleges Percussion Ensemble was first started in 1985 and named after S.Gonchigsumlaa. The Ensemble received the Silver Tree

Completely Ungrounded: Contemporary Music and Dance Performance

On March 1st, at 5 pm there will be a special contemporary music and dance performance entitled Completely Ungrounded at the student theater of the Mongolian University of Culture and Arts with music by postgraduate teacher P. Munkhjin with choreography by cultural worker Professor B. Jargal and student E. Erdenehuu. From the Folk Music department, the dulcimer quartet will perform under the direction of cultural worker Professor B. Badarch. Students who graduated from the Dance Arts department will perform under the guidance of cultural worker Professor B. Jargal. The performance is supported by the Ikel Folk Art Development Foundation,

The Music Arts School Folk Music Department, and the Stage and Theatre Arts School Dance Arts Department.

Arts Council of Mongolia, Delta Foundation Center, IV floor, Tourists Street-38, Chingeltei District Tel/Fax: 976-11-319015 E-mail: education@artscouncil.mn Web: www.artscouncil.mn
The Mongol Messenger is operated by the government news agency MONTSAME and is printed by the MONTSAME. Home Page: www.mongolmessenger.mn;E-mail: monmessenger@magicnet.mn (ISSN 1684-1883)