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* Gallery to Be Host to “Bulgaria Gold Treasure”

An initiative to collect donations for restoration of the building of Burgas Art Gallery “Petko Zadgorski” has started. This was announced today, January 30, by Diana Koltcheva, Chief of Tourism Department at Burgas Municipality on a press conference, where architect Gerganova - a representative of Jewish Community “Shalom” and engineer Ivan Ivanov, a restorer, participated. The start of the campaign coincides with the 100th anniversary of the building. The Gallery is one of the emblems of the city and could be defined as the “treasury house of Burgas”, for it keeps the works of outstanding artists and is a regular host to a variety of cultural events, mentioned eng. Ivanov. This summer July 1st – August 31st the Gallery plans to host  “Bulgaria Gold Treasure” – an exhibition from the National Museum of History fund.

BGN 160 000 is the sum needed for the restoration of the Gallery. An initiative committee is formed. Its members are: Diyana Koltcheva, Pepa Sedlarska – Director of “Petko Zadgorski” Gallery, architect Gerganova, eng. Ivan Ivanov, Sabetai Varsanov – Head of the Spiritual Council of “Shalom”. Honoured members of the committee are Mayor of Burgas Municipality Dimitar Nikolov and the Director of National Museum of History – Bozhidar Dimitrov. There are already some donations collected, but we need more, said Koltcheva and appealed to business, citizens and media to support the initiative for she is convinced that “when we unite, success is guaranteed”.

The restoration works envisage restoring of the stone plastic arts of the façade and the area around the building. There have been various repairs done so far, but they were never aimed at restoration of the original appearance of the building, which is the objective now. Burgas Municipality will take care of pavements around the building repairs, green areas development and later providing of  security of the guest exhibitions.

Smilena Smilkova, Chairman of Jewish Community in Burgas thanked Mayor Nikolov for his support of the initiative for, as she mentioned, “it is in the name of culture and spirituality”.

The building of “Petko Zadgorski” Gallery is built in 1909 and was a Synagogue at the beginning. There is solid evidence that it is designed by Austrian architect Fridrich Grunanger, who is the designer of Sofia Synagogue too. In 1963 the Synagogue is reconstructed and turned into a Gallery. The participants in the conference expressed their conviction that it is a monument of culture which has not only played a key role in our past but will also influence the future of our city.

Besides this summer’s exhibition, during the next two years two more exhibitions from National Museum of History fund are expected.

Donations for the restoration of “Petko Zadgorski” Burgas Art Gallery are collected in accounts in First Investment Bank – Burgas:

IBAN – BG 62FINV915010EUROA8CK - EURO

IBAN – BG 04FIN91501003835594 - BGN

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