ABOUT US

Values Foundation is an independent non-profit organization established in February 1998 by Mrs. Antonina Stoyanova. The Foundation has come into being in response to the national call to safeguard Bulgarian values inherent to our national identity which have helped our nation to survive through the centuries and inspire us to create unique artistic and cultural achievements.

The Mission of the Foundation is to foster the traditional Bulgarian values and to promote and showcase the Bulgarian achievements of art, culture and science as integral to the European society and heritage.

Values Foundation - past and ongoing projects highlights:

Macro project “Women in the 21st Century”

• Organization of the First International Conference “Women in the 21st Century: Transcending the Boundaries of Sustainable Development in Southeastern Europe”, which brought together 150 participants from 15 countries. Mrs. Hillary Clinton, then acting as the First Lady of USA, was the guest of honour of the event.
• The initiative “Women Leaders Initiative for South Eastern Europe: a dialogue for action”- aimed at the reinforcement of the role of women and their empowerment as local and regional leaders in the building of democratic society. The enterprise was supported by the First Ladies of Macedonia, Romania, Albania, Slovenia, and by the spouses of the prime ministers of Turkey and Greece

The National History Competition is the longest-running project of the Foundation. The initiative open to students from 8th to 12th grades from all Bulgarian schools began in 1999.. The competition is a part of the European network of competitions in national history EUSTORY which includes 25 countries. Its aim is to encourage students to conduct independent historical research and to provoke the young people’s interest in the history of their country and the region they live in. Since its beginning a total of more than 1500 participants have taken part in ten successful editions of the competition. The topic of the 2018 competition is “Childhood in History”.

Concerts. The Foundation has realized numerous music projects including a Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra Concert conducted by Emil Tabakov and starring Alexandrina Milcheva and Nicolai Ghiaurov, the festival Salon of the Arts, ‘Sofia Summer 98’ – performances by young Bulgarian musicians studying abroad, a charity gala concert at St Michael and St. Gudule in Brussels starring Mincho Minchev. “Gaida Fusion”, a concert mixing Bulgarian folk music with jazz, took place in the Sofia City Gallery in December 2017. In 2018, Foundation Values organized two concerts of “The Dream of Pontius Pilate”, a new symphonic work by Stefan Dimitrov, in Sofia and Plovdiv. The project was included in the cultural programme of the Bulgarian EU presidency.

Exhibitions. Values Foundation has organized many exhibitions in Bulgaria and abroad, exemplifying the high standard of Bulgarian art and culture. Among these are: an exhibition of Dechko Ouzounov’s works in Cyprus, Days of Bulgarian culture in Budapest, an exhibition of works of contemporary Bulgarian painters in Dublin. Most recently, in 2018, the exhibition “On Letters. The Cyrillic Alphabet in Contemporary Art from Bulgaria” was presented in the open-air exhibition space in the City Garden in Sofia. The exhibition was previously shown at the Palais des Nations in Geneva in 2016.

THE AIMS OF VALUES FOUNDATION ARE TO:

• promote the creative exchange of ideas and experiences between artists
• support the development of Bulgarian art and culture and their integration into the European and world cultural models
• popularize the accomplishments of the Bulgarian cultural heritage and to present them abroad as a contribution to the fundamental global values and progress
• support the participation in prestigious educational programs and platforms of young people with outstanding achievements in different fields of science and arts
• Participate in international projects in the field of education, science and art jointly with governmental and other non-governmental organizations with similar objectives and to develop a network for exchange of information and co-operation