Celebrating IDEA Day
27th November 2021
Happy IDEA Day 2021 from Elected Officers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpTbRChKqjg
IDEA Members Celebrating IDEA Day 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9PWpWfKl0A
IDEA Day Message from President Sanja Krsmanović Tasić
I want to address this IDEA Day Message to all those around the world believing that art education can change a person's life for the better.
To all those who feel alone in these hard pandemic times, knowing that our art belongs to live performative art.
To drama teachers who feel that real work, face to face with children, youth, adults, elderly is endangered.
To all those who fight from day to day for their right to teach drama and theatre in schools, in classrooms, in cultural spaces, on the fields and in courtyards.
To children who have learned from an early age to express, analyze, synthesize through the language of drama, understanding how beneficial it is for them.
To children and all who have not had that privilege and chance, but hopefully will.
To parents and guardians who patiently and with love bring children to drama classes, support and watch them develop and learn humanity through our noble form.
Also to all those thinking there are more important things than drama/theatre and art education in this world in turmoil. Who see no hope and only darkness.
Next year our IDEA association is celebrating 30 years since it was formed. We shall celebrate this important milestone together in July at the IDEA Congress in Iceland.
On the 25th Anniversary celebration in Evora, Portugal, Jovana Mihić from Serbia, a nineteen-year-old participant of the Young IDEA project that was part of the celebration, wrote and performed a story, that Maria van Bakelen also cited in her speech on that occasion.
The story is of a little boy who was the only one able to climb a very high tree in his village. When they asked him in wonder how did he do it, he answered: “I did not look up, I did not look down. My eyes were straight.” I share with you Jovana’s story.
I wish you all to keep climbing your tree, keep working, day by day, moment by moment, being aware of how important our mission is in this world. Let us not be stuck in the past, or too worried about the future. Let us be alive, giving our best to every moment.
Let us bring happiness and sense to the world through drama theatre education.
Let us celebrate IDEA Day 2021!
Sanja Krsmanović Tasić
IDEA president
From Here to the Sky
By Jovana Mihić
There is a story about the tree with branches that had grown up to the sky.
They were touching the clouds and it was a miracle.
Everyone wanted to climb to the top of the tree and to feel the softness of the clouds. Many of them had injuries because of that adventure, but one boy made it.
He said it was the happiest moment in his life. Maybe it is because he made his wish come true only by his efforts. Maybe it is because he did something that nobody had done before.
People from his town were so jealous. They were saying: "We couldn’t understand how can a little boy do such a great thing.“
There was a woman who was fascinated by this boy, and she asked him, without any jealousy in her voice: "How did you make it?“
And the answer was simple:
"I didn’t look down, I didn’t look up, my eyes were straight. My look was focused on the presence, on that very moment. I didn’t care what have I been through nor what is waiting for me, I was just trying to be the best I can in presence. And like that, I was changing the future and remaking the past.“
The woman told him that she wished she had his focused look, his eyes.
