International Art festival gets underway

Kohima, Dec. 5: To promote scope of art in the State and the northeast region as whole, the first ever International Art Festival was inaugurated at the State Academy Hall, coinciding with the State Hornbill Festival, with the Director of Art & Culture, Vevo Sapuh, as the chief guest.

The Art Festival was organised by the Department of Art & Culture in collaboration with Nagaland Art Society with guest artistes and members from SMD Foundation, Jungle Killol Foundation, Shyamala Mukherjee representing other participating artists from outside the state and Nada Itani from Lebanon.

Addressing the inaugural programme, Director of Art & Culture, Vevo Sapuh said there are abundant potentials for art to flourish in the State and stressed on the need for consistency of art promotional programmes in the state to deliver optimal benefits of art to the people.

Since its inception in 1976, he said the department of Art & Culture has been organising art exhibition to identify and promote the artistic talents in the State.

The Artists’ Corner at the Hornbill Festival organised the department in 2010 has become a regular feature of the Festival. He said it has been serving dual purpose of facilitating artistes to express themselves on contemporary issues while also creating better awareness of art and its contributions to the society.

He expressed hope that the Art Festival will be an experience of new inspirations for artistic pursuits in the state.

Stating that art has the potential to influence positive changes in the society, Art Executive from the department of Art & Culture, Vilalhou Noudi, said the department is committed to see that it realise its potentials and benefits in every possible manner.

Noudi stated his confidence that this collaboration to hold the first International Art Festival in Kohima will go a long way to bring about the many benefits of art in the state.

Meanwhile the Director, Vevo Sapuh has also released a book written by an Anthropologist; Dr Alok Kumar Kanungo titled ‘German Anthropologists on the Naga Hills’ – an annotated Bibliography of German literature on the Nagas.

Today’s exhibition saw the works of ten artists from three different countries, and the department is hopeful to bring in more countries and exhibit works of at least 50 artists from different countries in the next festival.

In this regard, it has informed that any artists and any art lover can be a supporter or a part of this project in any capacity.