On invitation of the East-West Center Association, Islamabad Chapter, students from a village school visited gallery 6 to view its inaugural show “66 Statements” at the new location. The school “House of Lights” is located in Pind Bhegwal, about 45 minutes drive from Islamabad on the way to Simli Dam.
The school was established in 2006 for children from very underprivileged communities by a dedicated group of people under Horizon International Trust. It started with pre- class one and currently it has 150 students up to class five. Class 6 will be started in a tent in a few weeks. School uniforms, books, materials and even pick and drop from homes is provided free of cost to every child and no fee is charged for tuition and other services. Previously, meals were also provided, which has been stopped due to shortage of funds.
Some 20 students of class 5 visited the gallery along with art teacher and principal. They all appeared to have great appreciation for art as they paid attention to each and every artwork, whether painting, drawing, print, photograph or sculpture. They discussed the imagery of the paintings relating to their personal observations. Their eyes beamed with excitement and they surprised not only the gallery staff but also their accompanying teacher by their intelligent comments. It seemed as if they were regular visitors to the art galleries.
For example, one girl commented on Ali Abbas painting “Oh look how much this mother loves her child”, while a boy looking at the transparent paintings of Masood A. Khan said that it is like the message on their class-room wall “learn to see what is hidden from eyes”. They not only loved the sculpture by Nusrat Mangi, in which a man is washing a cow in the pond, but they greatly admired the symbolic work of Jamil Baloch. They all read loudly in chorus form “Ayatul Kursi” that was aesthetically painted in the works of Arif Khan. It was not only astonishing to see their involvement in apparent art but also in the message of each painting and the technique with which it was done. Some were impressed with the pointillism technique used by the Australian aboriginal painter, while others discussed mixed media of Musarrat Nahid Imam. During the walk-through, the children started discussing among themselves about experimenting different techniques themselves. On completion of the round, when the curator of gallery6, Dr. Arjumand Faisel asked them that can they guess how many artwotks they have, the response was “85”, which came in a chorus indicating their sharp observation as the last art work was numbered 85.
At that point a girl from the “House of Light” school presented the objectives of their school to the audience, which also included NCA teacher Aqeel Solangi and students of his class. She confidently said “For our school, the secret of success of a nation lies in social harmony and the secret to social harmony lies in tolerance. The children of our school will grow up to face the challenge of establishing a tolerant, just and ethical society in which Pakistanis of all colors and creeds are free to practice their customs and religious beliefs and yet feel they belong to one nation that believes in democracy, in scientific and social progress. A nation where the welfare of the people is paramount”. Her confidence and the way of expression was spell-bounding.
Following this, they presented national songs, sang poetry of Allama Iqbal and a dance. As a token of appreciation of their interest in art, well-disciplined attitude, outstanding behavior, impressive intelligence and high aims projecting tolerance and harmony, the EWCA Chapter leader presented each one of them with a gift hamper. The students were overjoyed to see paint box, room decoration stickers, class-room accessories, chocolates and chips as their gifts. Ms Saadia Qaiser, the Principal of the School “House of Lights”, its art teacher Shahla Rafi, and Raja Qaiser, the man behind this initiative thanked the gallery and EWCA for providing such an exposure to these children from very under privileged communities. These students belonged to the families who cannot even afford to send them to the government schools.
Horizontal International Trust has got donations for the land but for expansion of the classes it is making efforts to raise endowment fund. All those people who want to support this outstanding effort can deposit their donation in favour of the trust, account no 01-6450652-01, Standard Chartered Bank, Saudi Park Tower branch.
