Keeping it alive: Lok Visra blends culture with education

First truck art workshop concludes on Friday

ISLAMABAD: Lok Visra’s latest initiative intends to mix cultural heritage with education to revive the legacy of Pakistan’s heritage for which it has organised a series of monthly workshops including truck art, pottery making, doll making, weaving, block printing, papier-mâché, chunri-making, stone carving, lacquer art and wax printing.

The first workshop — truck art workshop — concluded at the Heritage Musuem, Lok Virsa on Friday with students from a number of schools as participants.

Moreover, the concluding ceremony featured students offering impeccable musical performances of cultural songs such as Jugni Jee, Dam Mast Qalandar and other national and patriotic anthems.

Lok Virsa Director Fauzia Saeed stressed that children should pursue their passions regardless of whether they are academic or not and not be afraid of any hurdles that come in the way.



She underscored the significance of art education and the importance of preserving culture and heritage. She said that a painting or a drawing is not just a mere drawing but a flow of the imagination and creativity of a child and therefore children should be encouraged to pursue art. “Imagination and creativity is important because it leads to vision and that is important to solve all problems in life”.

The event was attended by over 200 students from various schools in the twin cities. Children were awarded participation certificates by the chief guest.

As many as 55 students participated in the truck art workshop and learnt craft making techniques from the established master artisans of truck art namely Habibur Rehman, Khalilur Rehman, Muhammad Farid, Muhamad Abid, Muhammad Ijaz and Muhammad Younus.

Khalilur Rehman, a pot painter from Rawalpindi who has been practicing the art since 2001 told The Express Tribune that it was a wonderful experience teaching students how to paint. “It was a learning experience for us as well because the children brought in their own creativity”, said Khalil.

Deputy Director of Lok Virsa Anwarul Haq, speaking to The Express Tribune, said the programme was a great initiative to educate students and the future generation about Pakistan’s cultural heritage. “Lok Virsa’s vision is to mix culture with education and this programme is just an implementation of that.  It is a series of programmes, which will take place till June with a particular craft of the month and we encourage schools and students to take part in this”.

Educationists and heads of schools were particularly happy about Lok Virsa’s initiative and believe it is a great learning experience for students. “We were invited by Lok Virsa and encouraged to send our students. This seemed like a great learning opportunity so 15 of our students came to this camp and it has been totally worth their time. Our students were taught free of cost by experts and even the cost of the raw material were taken care of”, said Islamabad Model School for Girls G-6/1-3 Principal Ghazala Bashir.

Students’ artwork was exhibited at the concluding ceremony of the workshop.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th, 2015.