DIMAPUR, JANUARY 22: Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio today said human life itself is an art where every individual has a character to negotiate the ups and downs.
Gracing the valedictory function of TaFMA Art Residency at Tuophema village as Guest of Honour, Rio called upon the participants to express their feelings through their works and also to become professional artists.
Exhorting the master artists and school children, Rio said Nagaland is a beautiful tribal State where each tribe has its own rich culture and tradition, which have to be protected and promoted.
“From the ancient time the expression of one culture and tradition was expressed through arts, music and dance”, he said
The Chief Minister expressed gratitude for choosing ‘Tourist Village’ Tuophema to be the first art residency camp and made a history for the village as well. He said the Tourist village was inaugurated by Dr. SC Jamir in 2001, celebrating the Sekrenyi and that was how the Tuophema Village and Ugma Village developed a friendship till today.
Drawing inspiration from Korean culture and work ethics, Rio said with the diverse characters of the Nagas, younger generation should live positively and find a way out how to survive with our culture and tradition and as a people.
Appreciating the work of the artists, he shared his experience of collecting arts in various art exhibitions in order to encourage the artists and also to promote the Naga art and its motifs. He also pointed out the importance of art pricing, which needs to be reasonable and called upon the artist to earn the trust and recognition of the people first and then the pricing.
With the start of this Art Residency at Tuophema, Rio hoped that the TaFMA would continue to promote the young artists and master artists to get into the profession and to build up to the commercial scale. He also encouraged the artists who are empanelled with TaFMA to become better as professionals and to young students to become professionals like the master artists.
Advisor to Chief Minister, Nagaland, Abu Metha extended his gratitude to the Chief Minister for his constant support towards the artists community that drives on innovation and creativity, which can help our society to make progress.
Speaking about the TaFMA Art Residency, Abu said the first art residency started with an aim to bring master artists in one place and to reach out to the local community schools and provide them capacity building and training in art classes and contribute to the society.
“Today through the vision of our Chief Minister, we are inspiring young children in the grassroots level of our society, this residency will not end here but it is the beginning of a long journey, it will reach out to different districts and different areas”, Abu added.
He said one of the earliest hobbies of human being was art, when there were no written words, no alphabets, the human beings told history in the form of art. He said that earliest works of human race, million years back are in the walls of caves, on rocks and human being told their stories through art.
Abu called upon the artists to know the power they hold to influence people’s mind and to grow up as a responsible citizen and tell positive story of Nagaland to the outside world. He also stressed on the power of social media which can take their works to every corner of the world and encouraged them to work hard to succeed.
The Chief Minister gave away prizes and certificates to the winners of the Art competition. Kevikhrietuo won first prize, while Viseduo and Ruduozelie Kense bagged the second and third respectively.
The programme was chaired by Advisor, TaFMA, Theja Meru, who also delivered the welcome address.
(Page News Service)
