Underprivileged children's artwork on display

Representational picture

Fifty-seven artworks of children, hailing from slums and railway stations, were put on display at a three-day art exhibition hosted by a five-star hotel in Kolkata and a trust for the underprivileged children. The paintings in water colour and pastel done by children in the age group of 2-3 years to 13-14 years, were put up for sale along with works of established painters.

"These art works have been created in workshops where children learnt to become more powerful and empowered from the state of being weak, unhappy and abused. So these works talk about empowerment, about joy and love," said Paint Our World (POW) founder Priya Virmani. The POW and ITC Sonar hotel have come together to arrange this exhibition, 'Agapi'.

'Agapi' is a Greek word meaning universal love, said Virmani. "We give promotion to art, that is why we collaborated with them (POW). At the same time we are helping underprivileged children," ITC Sonar General Manager Atul Bhalla told PTI. One of the paintings had the image of a little girl jumping on a field. It had a caption "For me happiness is playing and do skipping and blue skies and no exams."

Another painting of a big, blue mountain has the caption "I love mountains. They are always high and straight. I want to see them." Virmani said, "We partnered with organisations like Loreto School that provide shelters to these children and we have not spent one single rupee. All these artworks have been put together as everyone in the art fraternity - from six leading city galleries - to the ITC Sonar have come forward to empower these children." Every penny raised from the three-day exhibition, inaugurated on March 16, will towards the welfare of these children, she said.

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