site.btaBulgarian News Agency, Sofia City Art Gallery Sign Cooperation Agreement

The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and the Sofia City Art Gallery signed a cooperation agreement at the BTA National Press Club here on Tuesday. The document was signed by BTA Director General Kiril Valchev and Sofia City Art Gallery Director Adelina Fileva.  

Valchev said that BTA will systematically present the Gallery's activity through texts and photos to be provided by the Gallery with arranged copyright, allowing their use by all Bulgarian and foreign media thanks to the free access to BTA's materials in Bulgarian and English. 

Fileva commented that through the partnership, the Gallery will use BTA's archives. "Our projects go through some very serious research. Therefore, it is not only the present but also the past that is important to us, so that through them we would make a good future for Bulgarian art." 

She noted that the Gallery has a museum colletion of 23,000 works. "In addition to the main space that everyone is familiar with, we have two small museums dedicated to renowned Bulgarian artists Vaska Emanuilova and Dechko Uzunov," she said. This year, the Sofia City Art Gallery is preparing an exhibition dedicated to the 100th birth anniversary of painter Genko Genkov. 

BTA will take part in the marking of Genkov's birth anniversary in three ways: by popularizing, by supporting the Gallery in its search for more sources on the life and works of the painter, and by providing photos from the agency's archives, Valchev said. 

BTA Knowledge and Culture (LIK) Directorate head Georgi Lozanov said that the Sofia City Art Gallery is Bulgaria's national contemporary art gallery. "We must assist its mission to the maximum because now, with that half-scandal with the painting by Jackson Pollock, it became known what huge deficit there is in our audience for understanding contemporary art," he argued. 

According to the BTA Director General, the partnership with the Sofia City Art Gallery for Genko Genkov's 100th birth anniversary is part of the effort which BTA joins to preserve the memory of significant names in Bulgarian art and culture.