KARACHI: Two dozen events have been planned for Nov 22, 23 and 24 at three venues — Arts Council, National Academy of Performing Arts and Cantt Station — as part of the Pursukoon Karachi project, an initiative of Koel Gallery, announced artist Noorjehan Bilgrami at a press conference at the Arts Council’s Manzar Akbar Hall on Thursday afternoon.

Shedding light on how the idea of the campaign came about, Ms Bilgrami said the volatile and sad state of affairs in the city made some artists and sculptors come together under one roof in order to assess what they could do to mitigate the situation. One odd painting exhibition or similar event wouldn’t help in the long run, so they arrived at the conclusion that there should be a forum where creative individuals could assemble and gave their best to raise awareness among the people about how violence affected their lives and how important it was to have a peaceful atmosphere. “We (artists) don’t have weapons to drive out point home; all we have is paintbrushes, colours and ideas with which we can put our message across,” she remarked.

Ms Bilgrami said initially there were six people who contributed to the idea and now their number had climbed to 300. For the purpose, they got in touch with the Arts Council, which allowed them to use its space for the different projects, as did Zia Mohyeddin who didn’t think twice about providing the National Academy of Performing Arts premises for the campaign. Similarly, Pakistan Railways was gracious enough to have the artists work at the Karachi cantonment railway station and as well as on its 120-year-old building.

Artist Arshad Farooqi briefly spoke on some of the events planned for Pursukoon Karachi. He mentioned the name of sculptor Abdul Jabbar Gul who had come up with a concept for children ‘Hathyar Nahin Pyar’ in which children would learn about the dangers of weapons since they’re permitted by their elders to play with toy guns. Also, Zambeel Dramatic Readings would present Asif Farrukhi’s story ‘Samandar Ki Chori’ on Nov 24.

Art critic Nafisa Rizvi said contrary to what many thought, artists could do a lot to bring awareness of the city’s situation through visual experience of art.

Zain Ahmed, who represented Napa, said the academy responded positively when it was approached to partake in the project. He informed the media that there would be some musical programmes and events for children at Napa.

Pakistan Railways Divisional Commercial Officer Shoaib Adil said the railways welcomed the campaign wholeheartedly and the project-related work had already begun at Karachi Cantt Railway Station, a place that 5,000 to 6,000 people visit on a daily basis.

He believed it had also improved the image of Pakistan Railways.

Ms Bilgrami interjected at the point and asked journalists to visit the Cantt Station to see for themselves as to how much good work had been undertaken.

Tazeen Hussain, Asma Mundrawala and Jabbar Gul were then requested to speak about their assignments. Mr Gul said he wanted children to know that the toy guns that they played with had negative effects. For that he visited various schools and asked children to hand over their toy guns and gave them artworks and gifts in return. The response was very good.

Replying to a query during the question-answer session, Ms Bilgrami said the core group for Pursukoon Karachi comprised seven people, and different individuals and companies were extending support to it.

In the end, Mr Gul gave a short presentation in which toy guns were broken and then they were bulldozed in council’s lawn.