Beemathang (Kargil),September 12(Scoop News)-For the first time in the history of Kargil, All India Painting Camp has been held here Thursday as inaugural event of the 2-day Cultural Festival being organized by J&K Academy of Art, Culture & Languages.
The Kargil Cultural Festival, besides Painting Camp, features seminar on local languages of Kargil, State level Urdu Mushaira and other related activities.
A large number of people including writers, artists, students and senior officers were present at the inaugural function. In the evening, a colourful cultural programme was organized at the Kargil Auditorium where local artists through their performances enthralled a large audience.
The Camp is attended by 14 artists from different parts of the country including Delhi, Chandigarh, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, and Hyderabad, besides Jammu & Kashmir.
The Camp was inaugurated by Advisor to Chief Minister and legislator, Qamar Ali Akhoon, at the Rgyal Khatoon Forest Park on the banks of the fast flowing Suru River. Akhoon described the Camp as an important cultural event and hoped it would not only give fillip to the visual art in Kargil but also promote the place outside the State. He said the participating artists are like ambassadors, who would go back with fine impressions about Kargil and its people. He hoped that artists will paint the beautiful landscape, culture and life of people here, which will get wider exposure through their works.
Akhoon complimented the Academy for organizing state and national level events as part of the 2-day Kargil Cultural Festival and offered full support of the local administration in the successful conduct of the festival.
Welcoming the participating artists, Secretary Academy, Khalid Bashir Ahmad, said that the All India Painting Camp was an annual activity of the Academy that draws artists from different parts of the country to work at one place for a week and engage in creative activity. He said it goes to the credit of the Academy to have introduced in India the concept of painting camps.
Khalid said that holding of the Camp at Kargil was an important step to bring such a major cultural event to this place for the first time. Last year, he said, the camp was held at Leh. He hoped that the participating artists will like the environs of the camp and will be able to produce the best of their works here.
The Secretary also gave brief account of the major cultural and literary events recently held by the Academy and those in the pipeline. He said heritage exhibitions on Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh as well as language conferences will be held in the coming months.
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