On Saturday, after the lecture by Mirko Ilić on the topic of “New Symbols of Hatred”, an exhibition of works “New Symbols of Tolerance” officially opened in the Yugoslav Cinema building. Among the 26 entries submitted to the Heartefact Fund competition, the jury composed of H E Julia Finney, Australian Ambassador, Mia David, Mirko Ilić, Ivan Tasovac and Robert Čoban – chose the best – the logo of the designer Kosta Milovanović.
Proclaiming the winner, Robert Čoban recalled the present by one of the 1957 photographs: “This is a photo of Dorothy Counts, the first black girl to be enrolled in High School in Charlotte, North Carolina exactly 60 years ago. Her white peers and their parents bullied he for days, and her father decided to get her out of school, and later they moved to Pennsylvania. We witnessed these days in Šid the scenes looking like this – when it comes to the children of migrants who are not wanted by some locals in schools with their children. On the contrary, we have a case in the school in Pirot where children of migrants are accepted with open arms. It is up to us from the media and other public professions to draw attention to such cases both negative and positive every day. 50 years after this event in Charlotte, the library in the school from which her parents wrote it, got her name, and some of those who bullied her – made a public apology! I hope things will go faster for us. The winning work just reflects our aspiration!” After the opening of the exhibition, Australian Ambassador Julia Finney hosted her reception in honour of the author of the works.
