Collection of Josip Prudeus

Otvori galeriju

In one of the rooms of the Samobor Elementary School, to the benefit and joy of all, there is collection of a teacher – Josip Prudeus, who was even more than a regular teacher. If you step inside his room only for a moment, you will find 300 paintings, 200 pieces of ceramics, 156 music sheets, hundreds of DVDs, VHSs as well as 3,000 books. So, he was not “just a teacher”. He was not “just a collector” who spent 46 years collecting things. He is a great man. He is a soul. A man who knows how to inspire good deeds, new things, creative works and who means more than just the things donated in the collection.

Josip Prudeus has published 25 books and there is almost no children’s magazine in which he was not an associate. He was listed in five Croatian poetry anthologies, he was a collection editor, a preface writer, a documentaries’ screen writer, and a script writer for Christmas concerts in Cibona and a few shows for the programme Lijepom našom.

He is one of the founders of the School of Creative Thinking for Gifted Students called Novigrad Spring, as well as the Night of Croatian Love Poetry on Ljubica’s grave. His 200 poems were put to music by, among others, Arsen Dedić, Pero Gotovac, Siniša Leopold, Tomislav Jozić and Željko Bradić. He is the founder and the first editor of the programme for children and youth at the Croatian Catholic Radio, and as a marketing worker he is the author of some hundred product names, company names, TV clips and other. He also came up with the name Vatreni (Fiery ones or Blazers) for the Croatian national football team.

As a teacher he worked in many elementary schools: in Brod na Savi, Sibinj, Rab, Bregana, Noršić Selo, Grdanjci, Mrkopalj, Novalja, Novigrad, and in 2008 the Committee for presenting the Ivan Filipović award decided to give this greatest award for life work to Josip Prudeus, a teacher, a Croatian and History teacher in the Samobor Elementary School for promoting pedagogical theory and practice.