The Special Prize of the President of the Republic of Belarus for the design of the facsimile edition Кніжная спадчына Францыска Скарыны (The Book Heritage of Francysk Skaryna) is awarded to Constantine Vashchenko, designer and member of the publishing programme of the National Library.
This is stated in the decree number 517 of December 31, 2016 "On awarding the Special Prize of the President of the Republic of Belarus to workers of culture and arts in 2016".
The publishing project The Book Heritage of Francysk Skaryna is designed for the period 2013–2017 and timed to the 500th anniversary of Belarusian book printing. Its initiators and main performers are the National Library of Belarus and the bank BelVEB.
The facsimile edition will promote the heritage of the Belarusian printing pioneer and acquaint the general public with one of the most valuable treasures of the book culture of Belarus. Furthermore, the facsimiles will be a basic source for historical, philological and bibliological studies. The issued publications will be donated to scientific, educational, cultural and public organizations of Belarus and foreign countries.
For a quarter of a century, the artist Constantine Vashchenko has been successfully working in the techniques of easel, book and computer graphics and poster, developing art albums and carrying out other creative projects. In recent years he’s worked mainly on book design. The artist’s landmark work is the design of the scientific publication Кніжная спадчына Францыска Скарыны (The Book Heritage of Francysk Skaryna).
The artistic solution of the facsimile edition is conditioned by the spirit of the age and the historical significance of the printer’s book heritage. That is why the artist decided to join and develop the design for the most important publishing project dedicated to the 500th anniversary of Belarusian book printing.
