On Thursday, November 27, 2025, as part of the international event “European Heritage Days 2025” (Mladi i naslijeđe 2025), a special award ceremony was held for the winners of the “Youth and Heritage 2025” competition, organized by the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sports of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Among this year’s awardees were several students from the IUS Visual Arts and Visual Communications Design (VACD) program: Esma Hadžić, Aiša Kadrić, Ajna Odobašić, Iman Ašćerić, Iva Kristić, and Vahdeta Harbas. Their work was supervised and mentored by Asst. Prof. Dr. Emir Hambo within his VA415 Design Studio I course.
Their recognition is a testament to their creativity, dedication, and strong sense of cultural identity, marking them as young ambassadors of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s heritage.
The theme of this year’s competition - “Architectural Heritage: Windows to the Past, Doors to the Future” - attracted participants from primary and secondary schools, universities, and the wider community. The aim of the competition is to inspire young people to appreciate and preserve Bosnia and Herzegovina’s material and immaterial cultural, historical, and natural heritage, and to highlight the importance of sustained care for cultural monuments, traditional crafts, skills, and customs that shape our shared future.
The best visual, literary, video, theatre, and music works, as well as youth activism projects in the field of culture, were selected through a combination of public voting and evaluations of the expert jury.
Architectural heritage goes far beyond functionality - it represents history, cultural identity, and collective memory. This theme encouraged participants to explore traditional craftsmanship, architectural customs, and the importance of safeguarding the skills and knowledge embedded in the built heritage we pass on to future generations.
Congratulations to our talented IUS students for their outstanding achievements and for proudly representing the University at a national level.
