Since buyers are more interested in paintings and drawings, the private art galleries are more focused on these two forms of fine arts. PHOTO: FILE
Fauzia Minallah remembers a Peshawar from her childhood with a happening culture scene, arts classes and the thriving Abbasin Arts Council.
But most of that has changed over the past few years.
“It was in Peshawar that I was introduced to art,” Minallah, an Islamabad-based visual artist, said at seminar on “Role of Institutions and Galleries in Setting Up Future Dimension of Visual Arts” at the National Art Gallery (NAG) on Wednesday.
Artists, curators, art connoisseurs and students of fine arts from institutions around the twin cities were present on the occasion. “It (Peshawar’s arts scene) was not as vibrant as that of Lahore or Karachi, but at least there was one,” she added.
At present, artists from Peshawar are forced to hold their exhibitions elsewhere in the country, female fine arts students are harassed on campuses and a student was even murdered for allegedly playing a guitar in his college dormitory, Minallah said.
All this has led her to the conclusion that in addition to art galleries and institutions, the future of arts in Pakistan is dependent on a conducive social environment.
“The space for progressive thought in society is decreasing,” Minallah said. “We need an environment of tolerance, security and freedom in which visual artists can work.”
Otherwise, our cities will end up becoming cultural deserts, she said.
Gallery 6 Curator Arjumand Faisel, said the key goal of private art galleries is to sell art, so the demand of the buyers plays a crucial factor in the art forms exhibited by the galleries.
Since buyers are more interested in paintings and drawings, the private art galleries are more focused on these two forms of fine arts, Faisel said. But at the same time, other forms of visual arts, such as sculpture, installations and photography, are being neglected.
“Private art galleries distinctively have future for paintings and drawings, not for other visual arts,” Faisel said. “The support is required from national and regional galleries for [visual arts’] progressive future,” he added.
NAG Visual Arts Division Director Mussarrat Nahid Imam, conducted the proceedings. In her opening address, Imam appreciated the efforts of private art galleries and institutions in promoting visual arts in the country.
She stressed the need for private-public partnerships regarding art promotion in the future.
“I feel that many of us working toward the promotion of visual arts are working in isolation,” Imam said. “We need to revise our efforts and form joint and collaborative initiatives to promote visual arts in Pakistan.”
Nargis Khalid, professor at the COMSATS department of architecture and design, said arts education at the primary and secondary levels in Pakistan is not up to international standards.
Khalid said COMSATS has developed the curriculum for a Master degree in art education which will be offered soon. The curriculum is intended to educate students about how to teach arts at different levels of education, she said.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2013.
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