The House of Nanna will be quite a happening place on Nov 27 as it will feature two exhibitions and a blood and eye donation awareness camp.

The place at Chinar Courts, Raiwind Road, has been named after renowned cartoonist Anwar Ali, who was appointed staff cartoonist in the Pakistan Times on Feb 4, 1947. It was built by Dr Ajaz Anwar, the talented son of Anwar Ali, and its inauguration took place in 2011.

Every year Ajaz Anwar holds an exhibition and a medical awareness campaign at the House of Nanna. This year on Nov 27 there will be two exhibitions -- one of Anwar Ali’s cartoons and the second of paintings by Dr Ajaz Anwar. Besides, a blood and eye donation campaign is part of the event.

An exhibition of ceramics opened at Shakir Ali Museum on Friday last. It was inaugurated by veteran artist Mian Ijazul Hassan along with his wife and prominent artist-cum-educationist Mussarat Hassan.

Dr Ajaz Anwar also joined them for the ribbon-cutting ceremony along with artists, students from different art institutions and ceramic fanciers.

The exhibition was organised by the Pakistan National Council of Arts and the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage. The exhibition was the end product of dedicated students’ work depicting historical forts, monograms, calligraphy pieces in terracotta and fiber glass.

Speaking on the occasion, Mian Ijazul Hassan urged the Urdu print and electronic media to give comprehensive coverage to fine arts.

He said in the past Urdu newspapers used to cover art exhibitions but gradually this tradition faded away. He regretted that the standard of art criticism had considerably gone down.

He said the National College of Arts was originally for the children of craftsmen but later on degree conditions were imposed.

Mussarat Hassan underlined the need for more workshops on different genres of art saying such events should be interactive. She said through such workshops the distance between the public and the artist would lessen.

Dr Ajaz Anwar was of the view that art criticism should be revived in Urdu journalism because a larger section of the public reads Urdu newspapers.

He said in the past many articles used to appear in Urdu magazines such as Naqoosh, Humayun and Lalil-o-Nehar. Dr Anwar said it was not necessarily the English journalism where art criticism could get a place.

An exhibition of artworks by Maham Suhail will open at the Alhamra Art Gallery, The Mall on Nov 24. The exhibition is an experimental journey into spaces in the artist’s mind. The art show will feature photography, (digitalised) original art, poetry, music and video installation. It’s the first solo exhibition of the artist.

The Lahore Arts Council, in line with its promotional campaign for the family theatre, had chosen Ajoka Theatre’s famous play Bullah, which was staged at the Alhamra Art Center, The Mall this past week.

Ajoka has staged this play countless times at Alhamra and other arts councils within the country and abroad. The play, written by Shahid Nadeem and directed by Madeeha Gauhar, is on the life of Sufi saint Baba Bulleh Shah.

Ali Zafar hosted a special screening of his last weekend YRF release, Kill Dil, where he invited 50 students from Sanjan Nagar, a school for underprivileged students. Zafar shared that Sanjan Nagar School provided quality education to underprivileged students at a highly subsidised fee where the cost of one child was Rs30,000 annually.

“So I’m delighted to extend my support to this worthy cause by announcing scholarship for 50 students at higher secondary level, which hopefully will enable them to not only get their high school diploma but give them a chance to pursue a more productive and qualitatively better life.”

The star announced he would sponsor the education for 50 students as education was a serious concern. Hailing from a background of educationists where both his parents are professors, Zafar said: “Success is God’s gift and in my opinion must be utilised to give back to his people. I am who I am because of the love of the people. We have a habit of asking God to give us things we desire and when he does we forget. I don’t want to do that. Hence, I am taking responsibility for the education of 50 children who will support 50 families. They are our future. It is upon us to secure it.”

He also said he was headed to Islamabad where he would meet more children from poor families and do his best for them, their families and their education.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2014