The first plein-air was held from January 17th to February 10th 1998 in the House of the Cinema Union in the village of Lessidren – the birthplace of Lessedra Art Gallery. 

   *Alexander Ivanov, Angel Vassilev, *Andrey Daniel, Boiko Mitkov, Boris Dimitrov, *Vassil Karadimov, *Vessko Velev, Victor Chultarsky, *Virginia Stoyanova,  Vihroni Popnedelev, Vulchan Petrov, Gancho Karabadjakov, Gencho Denchev, *Georgi Marinov, *Georgi Popov, Greddy Assa, *Dimitar Grozdanov, *Dimitar Lalev, Dimitar Ugrinov, *Evgeni Kuzmanov, *Edmond Demirdjian, *Encho Pironkov, *Zafer Galibov,  Ivan Ninov, *Yordan Kissiov, Keazim Issinov, *Marin Kassarsky, Milan Andreev, *Miloslav Bonov – Mibo, Nikolay Maystorov, *Peter Dochav, *Rossana Alexandrova, *Roumen Skorchev, *Suli Seferov, Svetlin Roussev, *Svilen Blazhev, *Silvia Kirova, *Stoil Mirchev, Toma Trifonovsky, Hristina Petrova, *Hristo Yotov, *Hristo Stefanov, Hristo Haralampiev, Tsviatko Siromashki

   24 Bulgarian artists (shown above with an asterisk), critics, journalists and art connoisseurs participated during those 25 days. 20 more artists took part in the project by providing their own works and were included in the catalogue and the exhibition that was organized in June in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. 

   The artists Sasho Stoitsov, Orlin Dvoryanov, Huben Cherkelov, Kossyo and Georgi Tushev were also invited and came to the creative workshops and discussions. Due to the arguments that followed, the difference and disagreements that emerged between the generations of artists the above-mentioned artists did not participate in the workshop. That led the art critic Maria Vasileva to further dramatize the relationships and described them in her article: “A big scandal…between the young radicals and old classics…”. However, only several years later those “radical” artists participated in group exhibitions together with the “classics”, in the Sofia City Art Gallery with the help of Maria Vasileva. This only proved the rightness and historical truth of the ideas of Lessedra. 

   The workshop was also visited by businessmen collectors. A memorable and now historic is the meeting of Gergana Mantarkova and Bill Drysdale from KPMG with Peter Dochev – on one of the pictures they are in the snowy Lessidren Mountains. Here in the House they were looking at the paintings and making their choice. The general manager of another foreign company Donaw  Star confirmed his financial commitment even before the beginning of the plein-air, convinced of its importance and feeling that important outcomes would be achieved. The owner of the Spanish financial group Litexco – Group Fabio Beccaria bought 20 pieces of art almost immediately after the plein-air and continued to satisfy his collector’s passion during the other events. 
   Purchases were also made by the car dealers Avtomotor Corporatia and Bulvaria and the financial company Ever. Helikon Bookstores also took part and the eagle of Evgeni Kuzmanov became the symbol of their bookstore in Burgas and from then on it had grown to be the statue of the literary award Helikon. The local cooperatives Bratesh and Dovertie supported the workshop and in return received art works for their collections. 

   After the winter workshop Lessedra organized immediately in the summer of 1998 the next creative meeting – a continuance of the winter project. A major part of the winter participants showed up for the summer meeting, as well as artists who could not come during the winter: Gancho Karabadjakov, Dimitar Ugrinov, Milan Andreev, Nikolay Maystorov, Tsviatko Siromashki, Peter Savov, Nikola Stanchev, Peter Pironkov, Irina Ugrinova, Lyuben Zidarov, Maria Duhteva, Bogdan Penev...
Again in Lessidren the third workshop was organized in July and August 1999, where, together with the Bulgarian artists, Monika Nelting from Germany and Lee Do – Shik and Park Hang – Ryul  from South Korea took part. 
   In 2000 Lessedra organized the workshop on the seaside for a change – in Sunny Beach and Nessebar in the second half of September. 

   During those years Lessedra invested heavily in the contemporary Bulgarian art:
- in the process of creating works of art by providing the necessary place,
- in documenting and cataloging artists, works, tendencies, critics and journalists,
- by representing the contemporary Bulgarian art and artists in exhibitions at home and abroad,
- by focused work towards encouraging collectors and buyers of contemporary Bulgarian art. 

   And perhaps the most important: preserving and storing a major part of the art works for the Lessedra Collection. In this way we compensated for the inability of the state museums and galleries to buy works. The Lessedra collection encompasses a period of 20 years – from the end of the 1980s until the present. It includes classical techniques (paintings, sculpture, art prints) as well as new media – installations, video, photography. 

   During the following years Lessedra organized several other workshops where old and new artists took part. The projects, specializing in the field of Printmaking, continue and more and more, predominantly young, artists participate. 
During 2007 Lessedra represented 22 contemporary Bulgarian artists outside Bulgaria – in April in Amsterdam, in May in Cremona and in November in Tokyo. 

   Note: all of the above events are included one way or another in the catalogue and the CD, published and accompanying the exhibition in June 1998. This remains the only representative published work for contemporary Bulgarian art, including artists in the field of paintings, printmaking, sculpture, photography. A significant place is given to the art critics and journalists and finally, but not least importantly – to the connoisseurs and collectors of contemporary Bulgarian art.