Art critics, historians and people who consider facts have pondered on Vitebsk art school phenomena until now. One of the main themes is the date of its birth and the terms of celebration of this event in the modern art. The 17th Sessio Art did not take part in these disputes and celebrated this event in its own way by carrying out the traditional project on May 16, 2008. The members of the contest committee were:

1. Nikolay Pogranovsky - art critic, director of museum-reservation “Zaslavl”, presiding commissioner
2. Galina Kazarnovskaya – head of the sub-faculty of design of Vitebsk State Technologic University
3. Nickolay Gugnin – head of the sub-faculty of fine arts of Vitebsk State University n.a. P.Masherov
4. Osvalds Zveisalniecs – professor, Latvian Academy of Arts
5. Irina Loban – senior lecturer of the sub-faculty of Arts of the Institute of management and social technologies of the Belarusian State University
6. Ludmila Ignatieva – art critic, a lecturer of Minsk Arts College named after Y. Glebov
7. Victor Shilko – painter, the member of the Union of Artists of Belarus
8. Vladimir Rynkevich – candidate of fine arts, head of the sub-faculty of decorative and applied arts of Belorusian University of Culture and Art, an associate professor
9. Dmitry Sursky - president of Belarusian League of designers.

The first one who came up to the stage with a piece of good news was Oleg Skovorodko on behalf of Vitebsk branch of the Union of Artists of Belarus. He presented Inga Karashkevich, a 5th year student of Vitebsk State University, the Diploma and  the grant for the painting “Malyutta”, special prize “For the original creative and compositional view”. The other special prize from Union of Designers of Belarus was presented to Sergey Romanovsky from Vitebsk State Technologic University (series of posters “Happy New Year”).

Dmitry Andreyuk, Oleg Pronko, Timur Khomich - Institute of management and social technologies of the Belarusian State University, multimedia-art “A can man”.

Gita Gramatynya - graphics “A Conversation” Latgalian branch of Latvian Academy of Arts.

Irina Lutsenko - arts and crafts, “Mazay Tsy”, Vitebsk State University

Andrey Kastryuchin and Yury Skorohod - design, “Metamorphosis”, Institute of management and social technologies of the Belarusian State University.

Artis Rubulniks - sculpture “Musical Genopheva”, Latgalian branch of Latvian Academy of Arts.

Anna Gridina - avant-garde “Mondrian XYZ”, Belarusian Pedagogical University n.a. M.Tank.

Yuris Libeks - painting, “Still life” Latgalian branch of Latvian Academy of Arts.

Irina Kuchinskaya – special contest nomination “90th anniversary of Vitebsk Art School”, Vitebsk State Technologic University.

Osvalds Zveisalniecs, the professor of Latgalian branch of Latvian Academy of Arts, presented special prizes:

1. Svetlana Zadrutskaya – prize “for the picturesque expressiveness of the urgent theme in painting”, “Handicapped children”, Minsk Arts College named after Y. Glebov
2. Alesya Tarnatskaya – prize “for traditions preservation of Vitebsk avant-garde”, special contest nomination, poster “Unovis”, Vitebsk State Technologic University
3. Marina Smal - prize “for progressive interpretation”, avant-garde “The Middle Ages”, Vitebsk State Technologic University.
4. Alexei Usovich – prize “for discoveries in colour”, painting “A Flower”, Vitebsk State University n.a. P.Masherov.

After that the curtain dropped but in five minutes it raised again and the evening program continued by the performance of the contemporary dance group “TAD”, Grodno and Diana Yurchenko's choreographic studio, Vitebsk. But this is another subject for discussion which refers to IFMC that will take place in November 26-30, 2008 for the 21st time.

To all appearances, the XVIIIth  Sessio Art will take place in April next year. One of the reasons is the possibility for the students and lecturers of St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture n.a. I.Y. Repin to be able to take part in the event. It is possible that by April 2009 we will be able to overcome all the organizational issues and see in the flesh the works of students from Poland, France and Germany. The Sessio-Art is grateful for its participants, viewers and the general partner of the project - “Mobile TeleSystems, LLC” and the enterprise “Belvest”.

NB. The more complete version please check in the Russian Variant of Sessio Art report.