A surprise for the participants of the Meeting and their guests – two years after the opening of the retrospective exhibition in Zagreb on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the painter’s birth – was the opening of an exhibition of seventeen drawings in pen and Indian ink wash from a 1991 donation stored at the Modern Gallery in Zagreb, and one portrait entitled Indian With Wool Cap from a 1994 donation owned by the CHF by Croatian emigrant painter Kristian Kreković. On hand to present the project was Ljerka Galic, head of the CHF department of emigrant heritage.
The Croatian Heritage Foundation, along with the Ministry of Culture and Brod-Posavina County, has, from its inception, financially supported this worthwhile initiative of enthusiasts and organisers, led by Ivan De Villa, from the small Slavonian municipality of Rešetari, who have for a number of years staged meetings of artists in June and of poets from around the world in September.
The event aims to nurture and preserve Croatian literary efforts by Croatians from all parts of the world and to create links between our emigrants and the homeland. As the late poet Lujo Medvidović once wrote: “The Rešetari literary and arts association achieves its purpose here as a separate polis of spirituality and humanity through the stage, images, notes and verse.”
The Rešetari Meeting of Poets was staged last weekend, this year pooling some two hundred writers from eighteen countries. They were presented in a collection of works entitled Kamen i odmaci (Stone and Variances), of which Professor Ivan Slišurić, one of the selectors, spoke extensively and critically.
The event also featured two book promos. Matici domovini (To the Motherland) and Nemir koji nije imao ime (Restlessness Without a Name) by Marija Kosović Makić of Sydney and Ljerka Totch Naumova of Skopje. The former was presented by Professor Đuro Vidmarović and the latter by Professor Sanja Vulić.
A surprise for the participants of the Meeting and their guests – two years after the opening of the grand retrospective exhibition in Zagreb on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the painter’s birth – was the opening of an exhibition of seventeen drawings in pen and Indian ink wash from a 1991 donation stored at the Modern Gallery in Zagreb, and one portrait entitled Indio s vunenom kapom (Indian With Wool Cap) from a 1994 donation owned by the CHF by Croatian emigrant painter Kristian Kreković. On hand to present the project was Ljerka Galic, head of the CHF department of emigrant heritage.
At the Meeting of Poets the authors from the Diaspora and neighbouring counties recited their poems as published in the XVI Anthology of the Rešetari meetings. They were preceded by speakers from among the hosts and guests including: Rešetari Culture and Visual Arts Society president Ivan De Villa, Municipality of Rešetari Mayor Zlatko Aga, Herceg-Bosna Writers’ Society president Fabijan Lovrić and Democratic Federation of Croatians in Romania president Petar Hategan. 
Addressing the gathered on behalf of Croatian Canadians was Antun Kikaš, donator of the Young Poets’ Collection, followed by Dubravka Severinski of the State Office for Croatians Abroad, Ljerka Totch Naumova on behalf of the Croatian Community in Macedonia, Dijana Mašala Perković on behalf of the Croatian heritage Foundation and Brod-Posavina County Prefect Danijel Marušić who opened the event. The evening was graced by a performance of the Slavča Croatian Vocal Ensemble of Nova Gradiška. (Lj.G.)