The Kashmiri Art Festival, arranged by Rawalpindi Arts Council (RAC) opened here on Monday. Minister for Tourism Government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Abdul Salam Butt inaugurated the event.
The art works put on display at the festival include papier-mâché, Kashmiri embroidery, Kashmiri Shaals, frames and paintings.
The art of papier-mâché was brought from Iran to Kashmir almost six hundred years ago and flourished there the Kashmir artists, generations after generations.
In papier-mâché, paper is moulded into different shapes and is then decorated with various colours.
Zulfiqar Ali Ghazi, a Kashmiri artist presented his papier-mâché work in the festival. After the inaugural ceremony, Abdul Salam Butt observed that the Kashmiri art represented worldwide Kashmir as well as Pakistan.
Toshikazu Isomura, the counsellor at the Embassy of Japan also visited the festival. He showed great interest and praised Kashmiri art. He was of the view that it was a wrong perception that Pakistanis were fanatic as the festival showed that they were peaceful, talented and art-loving people.
A large number of people from Rawalpindi and Islamabad were present on the occasion.
