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CULTURE

70 years of creativity at the Idrija Municipal Museum

This year, the Idrija Municipal Museum is celebrating its 70^th anniversary, the 60^th anniversary of taking over the management of the Franja Partisan Hospital and the 45^th anniversary of the remote museum department in Cerkno. The mission of the Idrija Municipal Museum is to take care of the movable and intangible historical, ethnological, art historical, and technical heritage in the Idrija-Cerkno region. With its permanent and temporary exhibitions, the museum presents a link between textbook history and real-world history and plays a key role in education, particularly on local history.

V objemu modrine with Marija Ivoš

To celebrate the Slovenian Cultural Holiday, the Slovenian Emigrant Association hosted on its premises a poetry reading with Marija Ivoš and her poetry collection V objemu modrine (Embraced by Blueness). What took this audience-packed and highly intimate event to the next level was Ivoš’s poetry being recited simultaneously in both the Slovenian and Croatian languages.

Marija Ivoš, a true artist and a heartfelt person whose father comes from Slovenia and whose mother comes from Croatia, has always been aware of her Slovenian ancestry. She has dedicated her book, in which she deep-dives into her emotions and explores through her personal experiences everyday people’s problems, to her late father. On top of this being her second poetry collection, Marija has also held 20 solo exhibitions and 15 group exhibitions both locally and abroad.

GENERATIONS

Elisabeth Milharčič: We are the children of war

Elisabeth Milharčič was born in a refugee camp in Linz. In 1948, she moved to Argentina with her family. Here, she studied to become a psychoanalyst. She was also a poet and a painter who never forgot about Slovenia, its natural wonders and the warmth of its people. Nadia Molek presents the tragic story of Elisabeth’s family, which was marked by an ideological clash, and dedicates it to the late Elisabeth who passed away on 11 March 2023 in Buenos Aires.

SLOVENIANS IN BUSINESS

Slovenians abroad on a mission for the Slovenian Museum of Natural History

The Slovenian Museum of Natural History is the first and thus oldest museum in Slovenia. In 2021, it celebrated its 200^th anniversary. It was precisely natural history collections that played the biggest role, with the most notable one being a collection of minerals by Žiga Zois (1747–1819). At the time, it was the most important collection of minerals in this part of Europe.

The Slovenian Museum of Natural History keeps natural history collections belonging to the first Slovenian museum. These were curated with the help of Slovenians living abroad, who formed a bond with the Slovenian Museum of Natural History after Slovenia gained independence in 1991.

Among the first donations was a collection of minerals from South America, which was collected by Vida Sotiropulos from Argentina. Donations were also made by Marko Zlokarnik, a professor from the Austrian city of Graz who donated bound volumes of two prominent mineralogy journals; Ciril Kovačič from Australia, the land of opals, who gifted to the museum several exceptional minerals; as well as Lev Tit Pogelšek and Katarina Zoja Pogelšek who presented the museum with decorative rocks from Madagascar. Lastly, the museum also received meteorite glass from Asia, namely Vietnam.

SLOVENIAN LANDSCAPE

The start of March was marked by economic developments – sadly not ones with a happy ending. In the first few days of the month, Magna broke the news with a story about moving its operations out of Hoče, and the management of the Kidričevo-based Talum released news that they are finally shutting down their electrolytic furnaces for manufacturing aluminum. Meanwhile, the Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development increased its economic growth forecast for 2023. They now forecast an 1.8-percent GDP growth.

Pensioners demanded higher pensions. At the protests in Maribor and Ljubljana, they were also joined by young supporters from the Slovenia’s Youth for Climate Justice initiative.

The end of the month was all about sports. And while the world championship in Nordic skiing in Planica was one of our biggest sporting events, it attracted few attendees. Reportedly, expensive tickets, accommodation and hospitality services were to blame.

The trade Union of Education and Training has cancelled its strike in April. They have reached an agreement with the Government. Meanwhile, Lek’s owner Sandoz has announced an investment of more than EUR 400 million in Lendava.

The Coalition Summit saw a discussion about tax and education reforms. The goal of the tax reform is to establish a simple, transparent and comprehensible tax system where a person pays taxes based on their economic power. As far as the education reform is concerned, developments are to see the light of day already in the next school year.

Farmers have had it and employees in the public sector are increasingly convinced that they are not being heard.

On 27 March 2023, which is celebrated as the World Theater Day, Kranj opened the 53^th Week of Slovenian Drama Festival with an award ceremony by the Association of Drama Artists of Slovenia.