Artists without borders

The Arts Olympiad competition was conducted in many ways around the world. On these two pages we look at the events in Pakistan and the United Kingdom.

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Activities in Pakistan for the Art Competition "Me in the new Millennium"

Children from a wide range of backgrounds participated in the competition in Pakistan. Organized by the Islamabad Children's Art Club (ICAC), activities for the art competition started on June 22nd, 2003. Since ICAC deals with children from a broad spectrum of society, there were children from the elite private schools, children from the public government schools, working children who go to an informal school, and children from the slums, many of whom who don't even go to school.

Where did the children come from?

--98 children were from two slums in Islamabad

--31 children were from various private schools

--16 children were from the informal school Chand School for working children

The rules and guidelines as well as the questions to be asked of the children were downloaded from ICAF's website.

The questions were all translated into Urdu (the national language of Pakistan). Since there were many children from the slums and Chand school, they were first given a drawing test on a piece of A-4 size paper. The six best artists were then given a big piece of paper and poster paints by ICAC to paint their ideas on how they see themselves in the new millennium.

There were lots of images of rainbows, birds and flowers. Unfortunately there were also pictures where a boy drew himself in a beautiful landscape with a monument of a missile, or a girl drew herself with balloons and a rainbow and also the image of a missile. Everyday reality is often harsh and many times art is the only way to express these parts of life.

All the paintings were put up on the walls of ICAC and judges were invited to judge them. Initially ICAC was going to invite local artists from Islamabad to judge this competition. But for this particular competition three eminent judges from varied backgrounds were invited since the competition was for an international event. The judges were:

Sabah Hussain

Sabah Hussain is a well-known artist from Lahore. She is a visiting associate professor at the National College of Arts, Lahore. Presently, she is a curator of an exhibition of traditional Japanese prints, at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts Islamabad. Her work is a part of the permanent collection of Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Fiona Torrence Spence

Fiona Torrence Spence is an artist and presently a teacher in the Japanese school, Islamabad. She is also a writer from United Kingdom, presently residing in Islamabad. Her first published book for children, 'The Horse's Curse', will be out very soon in Ireland. An exhibition of her paintings is currently taking place at the Nomad Gallery, Islamabad.

Humayun Taint

Humayun Taint is a well known artist of Islamabad. He is frequently invited by schools and art institutions to judge their art competitions.

COPYRIGHT 2003 International Child Art Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group