9 to 17 July 2005

This is our first “Horse Art” exhibition in Greece this year after three very successful exhibitions in France and Belgium – at the Salon du Cheval de Paris, at the Andenne Town Hall and at the Faculty of agronomics of Gembloux. Skyros is located in the heart of the Aegean sea, it is the biggest island of North Sporades, belongs to the Prefecture of Euboea and, most importantly, it is the “place of origin” of the endangered “Skyros horse”.

To mark the occasion of this unique event in Skyros the “Horse Art” exhibition inauguration was held on the main square, next to the Town Hall. The introductory speeches concerning the Skyros horse and its future were made by the mayor of Skyros, Mr. Miltiadis Hadjiyannakis, by the representative of the Euboea Prefecture, Mr. Dimitris Xygoyiannis and by Mr. Nikos Kritikos, Agrarian Specialist in Skyros. During the exhibition, the talented SKYROS FM executive, Nana, promoted on a daily basis the “Horse Art” event and its 28 artists.

In Skyros today there is unfortunately no public or private breeding centre for Skyros horses. So the Skyrian family Katsarelia informed us during the exhibition that with the support of private funding, they would create a “Rescue Station” to assist horse owners who can’t take care of their horses any more – EU subsidies have not been paid to Skyros horse owners since 2002. In 2004, sadly enough, the latest official census revealed that from the 90 hybrid horses living on the island, only 14 were purebred Skyros horses, i.e. of the “original type”.

In July, the “Horse Art” initiative in aid of the Skyros horse rallied the local artists interest. Seven artists, Ioanna ASSIMENOU, Georgos YAKOUMOPOULOS, Marlies XANTHOULI, Xanthos PANAGIOTOU, Freda SFIRIDI, Sava (Savina) GOUENEVA, as well as the known sculptor Georgos LAMBROU took part in the exhibition. They presented their works together with other Greek, Belgian, French and American artists supporting our project during previous events: Pascale BOUCHOLZER, Gérald BUTHAUD, Christine CORNET, Christine DARBOUX, Yves DONNAY, Francis FELIX, Laurent FRISON, Luc GAZON, Françoise GRESSE, Christiane JAVAUX, Makis KONSTANDELAKIS, Michael LAWRENCE, Philippe MEYRIER, Audrey MIGEOTTE, Claudine MORSA, Georges PENNAS, Martine PICARD-HELARY, Jean SPIROUX-MATHIEU, Aliki Alexandra STEEN and Ariane THONON.

Some 100 paintings, sculptures and art pictures were presented in four different central locations, in halls and exhibition rooms that were fitted out for the event :
1) the Skyros Cultural Centre,
2) the “Nostos” Art Café by the main square,
3) the new “Achilles” ferry boat that brings most tourists from the main land ,
4) the Skyros primary school theatre which will also present the children’s best drawings illustrating “The future of the Skyros horse on the island of Skyros”.

For most works that the "Horse Art" exhibition presented in Skyros, visitors had the opportunity to buy either the original or high quality reproductions - greeting cards, mounted A4 size reproductions and posters. As on previous exhibitions, by buying an original work of art or its reproduction, visitors offered their support to the SILVA Project for the preservation and breeding of the endangered Skyros horse.

The closing event on Sunday 17 July was also the ideal moment for distributing the drawing awards to 22 out of 175 children from the primary school who participated - in their own way - to the art exhibition. An extra prize was also attributed to ten children for their outstanding drawing performance : a two-day trip to Corfu for visiting the SILVA breeding and riding centre and for taking back to Skyros practical ideas for the preservation of a unique species, in its “place of origin”.