Artwork to be auctioned for Covid funds

Lalit Mohan

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Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, May 12

The Sobha Singh Memorial Art Gallery has found a unique way to contribute towards mitigating the woes of people suffering due to coronavirus pandemic. Artists at the gallery have produced artworks like African dolls that would be auctioned and funds thus generated would be used for extending direct financial help to people who are suffering due to Corona crises.

Hirday Paul Singh, general secretary of gallery, while talking to The Tribune, said when all are confined in the four walls of their homes since March-end his wife and daughter and a few other local artists were devoting time in creativity for charity work.

Sargun Kaur, her daughter and a student of M.Com, rushed back to her home at Andretta in Kangra valley as educational institutes were closed. The first thing she did was to inform authorities about her arrival and then she started learning the craft of using old newspapers and creating delicate artworks.

She has already made around two dozen African dolls with innovations like child standing alongside mother, child in the lap of mother and mothers carrying water. She intends to auction all dolls and use the money in charity for needy and destitute people in the pandemic. She has also crafted colourful paper huts out of old newspapers and intends to sell these also to raise money for charity.

Her mother, Kamaljit Kaur, a master trainer in Kangra folk arts like Likhnu, has stitched more than 500 face masks and distributed these to villagers and nearby farm university. She says that she will also auction some of her folk artworks and craft items to generate money for charity.

She says that she believes in direct charity as it is more satisfying to see that resources shared or given were properly utilized by the receiver. Sargun Kaur and Kamaljit Kaur belong to the family of eminent artist Sobha Singh and live at Sobha Singh Art Gallery. Other family members are regularly contributing through institutions and NGOs to the people badly affected in the pandemic.

Hirday Paul Singh said that other local artists are also producing art works that would be sold to people and money would be generated to help distressed people, he said.