Zdenka Bilušić

Zdenka Bilušić (1961) lives and works in Šibenik. Since 1983, immediately after graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, she has worked as an art teacher, spending 22 years in education. At the same time, she has been involved with the International Children’s Festival, where, since 1995, she has led art and puppet workshops for children. She ran the puppet workshop at the Šibenik Children’s Theatre in 1988/89. From 2003 to 2019, she was the editor of the Festival’s workshop program and the author of children’s art competitions for Croatian and international primary schools and kindergartens. Since 2005, she has been employed at the Juraj Šižgorić City Library in Šibenik, where she leads the Department of Visual Culture for Children and Youth and curates exhibition programs. On average, she organizes four exhibitions per month and up to six art competitions per year for primary schools and kindergartens. To date, she has curated over 300 exhibitions, including texts and catalog designs. She is the author of five picture books: Faust – leteći čovjek (Faust – The Flying Man), Putovanje jedne kornjače (The Journey of a Turtle), Priča o dva Jurja (The Story of Two Jurajs), Antun, makarski slikar (Antun, the Painter from Makarska), and the educational picture book Zeleno srce (Green Heart), as well as several others which she illustrated and designed. She is the editor-in-chief of Osvit, an annual publication promoting the cultural and natural heritage of the Šibenik region, published by the Šibenik branch of Matica hrvatska. She co-authored the art education textbook Pogled, potez (View, Stroke) for students in grades 5–8. In 1998, she founded and led the puppet studio ANIMA, which has operated since 2003 under the name Traveling Puppet Theatre FAUST. During this period, five puppet performances were staged. She has exhibited at numerous professional and scientific conferences, published papers in conference proceedings, and contributed to scholarly, professional, and popular journals. She is a member of ULUPUH, UNIME, and HDKDM and serves as the president of the Šibenik branch of Matica hrvatska.