On 23rd of June started the 2013 workamp season in Kuterevo with an artistic workcamp “Bear Art”. Main goal for the workcamp participants was to make several murals (paintings on walls) of bears, forest and wilderness to raise awareness for visitors about presence of bears, beauty of forests and human connection with wilderness, which is being destroyed.

Four girls participated in the camp – Izzy from England, Ronja from Switzerland, Nastia from Russia and Tiina from, Finland. They were coordinated by two long-term Kuterevo volunteers – Alice from France and Kristine from Latvia.

The girls made two wall murals, several direction signs and many individual paintings of bears, Kuterevo hills and more and more… The first mural was painted in a village Gorici, 7 km from Kuterevo. It portrays a bear mother with three bear cubs and the Kuterevo Mountains. The bear mother’s character in the mural is actually a bear from the refuge Bena Zir. The drawing is a kind of fantasy about the Bena Zir’s life if she would have been born in the forest instead of the zoo. The bear gets her name from Benazir Bhutto – the first and so far only female prime minister of Pakistan, who was killed in an assassination the same day the bear was brought to the refuge.

The idea for the second mural first was just Alice’s sketch on a rock. The girls found this idea simple and genius, and decided to paint this world bear in the heart of Kuterevo – next to the church. With this mural we try to show and remind that bears live all around the world and that their existence is a keystone to biodiversity and healthy planet.

Apart from these two murals, girls also made many small paintings on rocks and wood, painted some birdhouses and made signs. You can see more photos and like your favorites in the facebook profile of the refuge – https://www.facebook.com/kuterevo.voltareni

The camp turned out to be success – the participants were very satisfied, every day we hear nice words about the murals from locals and visitors, and we have already received requests from neighbor villages to paint on their walls 🙂

Kristine and Alice