Education often teaches children to be like someone else, but art teaches them to be themselves.
Every child is an artist and not much can hold back their innate creativity once given an opportunity to express themselves. Victims of circumstances but nonetheless fuelled by hopes and dreams, our children at the Light of Life Trust are always eager to learn something new and teach through their experiences, and what better than expressing yourself through a language understood globally; the language of art! That’s exactly what we aspired to give them, and thanks to the unconditional love and support, we succeeded!
What transpired as an idea to let children have fun with colours, transformed into Rangotsav, a unique art exhibition, featuring masterpieces by budding artists-our kids-alongside established artists. Our plan wasn’t simply to bring out their artistic skills but help them learn the value of their skills, while encouraging them to be self-confident and make themselves known in the public eye.
Rangotsav 2018 kicked off with a participation of 3000 rural, indigent children from 42 of Light of Life Trust’s centres across Maharashtra. Amongst all the wonderful entries we received, 25 of the best ones were shortlisted to be mentored by distinguished artists, Jaideep Mehrotra, Rakhee Shah and Poonam Agarwal.
Being taught the right use of colour palettes, depicting thoughts on canvas and honing their skills was certainly a plus for our young artists who gave it their absolute best! The 5-day exhibition witnessed not only kids’ passion for painting but their awareness and interpretation about their immediate surroundings, which we, as adults, often tend to ignore. While 21-year old Srushti Rajguru, inspired since childhood by her mother’s artworks, encouraged viewers to save trees, 13-year old Yashwant Kamble, whose family faces a major water crisis in the remote area, spread awareness about conserving water. 16-year old Sumit Divekar was so inspired that he has actually begun considering painting as a full-fledged career! All through the week the participants’ faces shone brighter than the colours and they all agreed that it felt great to make their voices heard for the first time in years!
Rangotsav 2018 Art Exhibition was hosted at the prestigious Jamnalal Bajaj Art Gallery, between 24th – 30th September. Our exhibition saw a total footfall of over 600 well-wishers and art lovers. This amount will go a long way in giving back to these young artists and continue to inspire them to express themselves through art.
Our esteemed guests of honour included our Founder, Trustees, and distinguished industry names like Premal Udani (President, CCI), Nisha Jamvwal (Architect and Luxury Consultant) and Dr. (Mrs.) Indu Shahani. The exhibition received a lot of admiration and praise from art aficionados and the judges, alike.
As the event drew to a close, the winners were awarded bicycles that would help them get to school faster and keep them active, while simultaneously encouraging eco-friendly travel, an issue they feel so strongly about, and so do we.
It fills our hearts with joy knowing that we could be an integral part of hosting art for a cause and lighting up lives with a million colours.
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