Minister Svetlan Stoev received a delegation from the National Art Gallery in Skopje
07 October 2021 News
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Svetlan Stoev received a delegation of the National Art Gallery in Skopje, led by its director Dita Starova-Qerimi.
The main topic of conversation was the opportunities for deepening cooperation in the field of culture, including the implementation of joint projects with the State Cultural Institute (SCI) under the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Cultural Information Center of Bulgaria in Skopje and other cultural institutions and galleries in Bulgaria.
"Culture is an integral part of foreign policy. It is the most direct path to people's hearts and souls. Through culture, messages can be sent that are difficult to achieve with the usual means of foreign policy," said Minister Stoev.
He expressed hope that this first official visit by a delegation from the National Art Gallery in Skopje would mark the beginning of an active joint effort that would help "walk together on the path of European co-operation".
"There is a huge untapped potential between us to work together and get to know each other even more, which I hope will be achieved literally in the coming weeks and months," said our foreign minister.
During the conversation, the possibilities for visiting a representative exhibition of SCI in Republic of North Macedonia, as well as projects of the National Gallery in Skopje in the gallery "Mission" of SCI were discussed. Among the areas of potential cooperation are training in the field of cultural management under Bulgarian official development aid.
Dita Starova-Qerimi thanked Minister Stoev for his commitment to joint initiatives of the National Art Gallery in Skopje and the State Cultural Institute, as well as the director of SCI Snezhana Yoveva and the director of the Cultural Information Center of Bulgaria in Skopje Antoniya Veleva for the opportunity to visit Bulgaria.
During the official visit to Bulgaria, the guests from Skopje had meetings with representatives of the Ministry of Culture, with the directors of the National Art Gallery and Sofia City Art Gallery, with teachers from the National Academy of Arts and experts in various fields of art. They visited the rich Art Fund of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, exceeding 2000 works of art, as well as the renovated gallery "Mission" of the SCI.