ISLAMABAD:A two-day ‘Spring Crafts Festival’, an event showcasing traditional and contemporary crafts in Pakistan, concluded here late Sunday.
The event was an ongoing collaboration between Nomad Gallery and Serena Hotels. Federal Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman also visited the show.
Addressing the event, Nageen Hyat, Founder Director, Nomad Gallery, rights and social activist and filmmaker said, “Pakistani art and crafts have a long tradition and history of a very wide range of skills, human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. Both highly dynamic and a characteristically constant feature of human life, they have developed into innovative, stylized and sometimes intricate forms.”
The crafts were a vehicle through which human beings cultivate distinct social, cultural, and individual identities while transmitting values, impressions, judgments, ideas, visions, spiritual meanings, patterns of life and experiences across time and space, she added.
Nomad Gallery routinely and holistically supported the economic empowerment of women through its activities. “Our focus this year is two-fold: our Spring Crafts Festival in collaboration with Serena Hotels remains a commitment of our collective belief in the continued pursuit of this endeavor,” the Nomad Gallery founder highlighted.
Unprecedented rains last year played havoc across most of the country, resulting in the loss of precious lives and massive destruction. Hyat said, adding that dealing with a calamity of such immense magnitude, through emergency relief operations was a challenge difficult to imagine.
A gigantic task that would require huge resources as well as collective efforts by one and all, and a considerable amount of time, she stressed.
Therefore, in addition to focusing on women’s economic empowerment, Nomad Gallery had been working to support the families of the flood-affected areas, Nageen stated.
“We have already conducted successful fundraisers independently, apart from in collaboration with the Pakistan National Council of the Arts and donated all proceeds to PPAF and the Edhi Foundation,” she added.
The crafts represented here at the Spring Crafts Festival were made by the women of the flood-hit areas, she said.