Victor Brauner Art High School, Piatra-Neamț

The mission of an arts high school is not limited to the sharing of knowledge and skills. Such a vocational school aims to train personalities who, through a selection based on talent, assiduous study and obvious results, can live the art and make it loved by people.

The need for a school with an artistic profile seemed natural, in Piatra-Neamț, after 1990. The city between the mountains and all the surroundings of Neamţ had rich folklore and literary traditions, publicly visible since the end of the 19th century. The famous conductor Sergiu Celibidache had started from Roman, from Piatra-Neamț the avant-garde painter Victor Brauner, the landscape artist Iulia Hălăucescu and, later, the well-known soprano Elena Botez (returned as a formidable singing teacher to her hometown, after the end of concert activities on the big scenes). Since the 1970s, however, a popular art school has operated in exactly the same building where the high school is located today, a school that adequately covered the vocational needs of students and young people in the area. 

The High School of Arts in Piatra-Neamţ, therefore, was founded on September 1, 1991, with its headquarters in Strada Peneş Curcanul no. 6, but operating, in the absence of other available rooms, in buildings from various other high schools (The "Calistrat Hogaș" National College, The Technical College "Gheorghe Cartianu"). The name of the school unit was changed in 2004 (April 24), from "Art High School, Piatra-Neamţ" to "Victor Brauner Art High School", and from September 1, 2012 to "Victor Brauner Art High School", Piatra-Neamt". Today, the high school has 4 buildings located in three building bodies, within which the type of education offered to the children is harmonized with the vocational dimension.

Thus, Building "A", from Peneş Curcanul str., no. 6 includes a number of 30 offices (for individual courses) and 3 classrooms (for collective courses) in which music students are trained, guided by 45 teaching staff, most of them tenured, with all teaching degrees given, some Methodists, some master's students, doctoral students or holders of the PhD title. The studio hall "Theodor Macarie" (with 120 seats, arranged downstairs and on the balcony) works both as a concert hall and as a hall for festivities. In these spaces, the sections carry out their activities: instrumental interpretation, vocal interpretation (classical canto), folklore (popular instruments and traditional Romanian canto). In the instrumental section, a number of 15 instruments of the symphony orchestra are studied (piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass, guitar, flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, trumpet, horn, trombone, percussion) as well as 3 instruments of the Romanian traditional music (pan flute, cymbal, accordion).

The general culture subjects are studied in the 2 wings of Building "B", located on Bd. Decebal, no. 48. They have a number of 8 classrooms, including ICT laboratory, methodical office, medical office, library (with over 9,000 volumes), gymnasium. High school students work in them under the guidance of 28 competent teachers (most with first and second degrees, two with PhDs). The students are divided into 20 classes: 1 preparatory class, 4 primary education classes (music), 8 secondary education classes (visual arts classes and music classes, one for each level), 8 high school education classes (4 visual arts classes and 4 music classes, same as in secondary school, one each of each level).The students carry out their activity during a day in 2 shifts.

The activity of the specializations in visual arts takes place in Building "C" in Alexandru cel Bun street no. 2, a heritage building that includes a number of 7 workshops in which students are trained in groups, under the guidance of 8 teachers. The "visual arts" specialization includes the sections: monumental art, easel painting, clothing design, printing, sculpture.

 

Source and additional information: www.liceulbrauner.ro