MINISTERIAL GREETING

For the program booklet of the international festival and seminar

„Glitterbird – Art for the very young”

I have accepted the invitation of Kolibri Theatre wholeheartedly, as well as the patronage of the „Glitterbird – Art for the very young” international festival and seminar. On the basis of research we very well know what an important role the mother and the family have in creating contact with the baby even before its birth, and why it is important that they talk to the baby in the mother’s womb, and tell the little one stories even previous to his or her arrival.

The different genres of art, music, dance, fairy tales all develop and help the children’s development of personality in a determining fashion. They greatly influence the way the small child learns the possibilities and forms of communication, how he experiences human emotions, how he is able to express and transmit them, and how his sense of phrasing and his imagination is capable of developing by so doing and in what manner he will be able to form connections and live together with the people around him.

We are all responsible that the development of the newborns arriving in the family be as harmonic, natural and carefree as possible. Most parents try to do everything in order to achieve this – one of the most important factors in the education and development of a small child is the daily participation and collaboration of family members.

This is why this initiative is also wonderful, wishing to render further help in facilitating the emotional and cognitive development of small children in the most important first few years of their development with the participation of artists of five countries, Hungary and Kolibri Theatre being among them.

The small children get a more complex picture of the world through the encounter with a performance, the puppets, and the artists. They can learn the importance of emotions, thoughts, imagination and sense of phrasing surrounded by their peers, inspiring one another. And this is especially important and significant in the case of children with special needs, with irregular intellectual or physical abilities, in favoring social interdependence and integration, in creating self-recognition and self-confidence as well as openness to the world.

It is my conviction that numerous professional and civil organizations will join this example initiative. Since it is about the small children of today, the little ones opening their eyes and minds to the world right now: that is, the adults of tomorrow. And not least it is about us, caring for the children of today, parents and grandparents responsible for the education of the generations succeeding us. In other words, it is about no more and no less then all of us, in the interest of a common and happier future for all of us.

 

 

 

Budapest, October, 2005