The Tolerance Center of the Vilna Gaon Jewish Museum is to open an exhibit of international medals decided to the memory of Boris Schatz at 5:30 P.M. on December 20. The same exhibits are to open in Sofia, Bulgaria and Jerusalem, where the artist lived and worked.

Boris Schatz (1866-1932) began his artistic career in Lithuania. Born in Varniai, he studied at the Vilnius School of Drawing, later moving to Bulgaria where he lived for a decade and taught at the Royal Academy of Art. At the age of 40 he went to Jerusalem, and in 1906 founded the Bezalel art school there, now known as the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design.

In 2015 Israel’s CAN New Artists Collegium initiated an international artistic medallion project to commemorate Schatz. Art camps were held in Lithuania, Bulgaria and Israel with 38 artists attending from Lithuania, Bulgaria, Israel, Poland and Ukraine who created Schatz commemorative medallions as part of the project.

The winners will be announced and awarded at the opening of the exhibition at the Tolerance Center. The exact same awards ceremonies will be held in Sofia and Jerusalem at the same time, with a video feed linking the events in the three capitals.

The Tolerance Center is located at Naugarduko street no. 10/2 in Vilnius.

For more about Schatz’s life, work and legacy, see here.