The Khatoon-e-Pakistan Government Girls School hosted an Open Day on Saturday featuring an art show, a science exhibition and a tribute to Urdu poetry.

Visitors included parents, advocates of public art, students from neighbouring private schools and colleges, teachers from partner schools, volunteers and passersby from the neighbourhood.

The art show featured models of the seven wonders of the world, replicas of ancient Egyptian mummies, jewellery made from recycled magazines, interpretations of Mona Lisa in different cultures, and other displays put up by students from Class 1 and up.

Projects and models of environmental pollution, risks to health and hygiene, everyday science experiments and a projector and light show were some of the highlights of the science exhibition.

Also on display was 'Urdu apnay mizaaj mai' — a creative tribute to Urdu literature in the form of a running mushaira by students in the costumes of famous poets and writers, such as Ghalib, Mir Taqi Mir, Amir Khusro and Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.

Ambareen Thompson, from the I Am Karachi initiative, expressed a desire to collaborate with the school's art students on a public art project. Art teachers from Dawood Public School were also keen for a student exchange.

Khatoon-e-Pakistan Government Girls School is managed by Zindagi Trust under their School Reform project.

One of the project's core features is a strong art program, led by Anam Shakil Khan, who aims to introduce students to the arts to help discover and hone their talents and interests and develop them into well-rounded citizens.

The trust also works to enable and encourage teachers to make learning fun and relevant.

"I'm delighted to see that our children are thinking critically about current issues from plastics and pollution to recycling and composting but also studying art history," said Shehzad Roy, founder and president of Zindagi Trust.

"We want our students to explore everything so that they don't just get good at taking exams but also become the kind of well-rounded citizens that Pakistan needs today," he added.

In addition to weekly classes, students attend talks by guest speakers, visit art galleries and museums; create and experience public art through murals, and so on.

In the future, the school plans to expand on the outreach of its art program beyond the annual exhibition — through community interaction, events such as inter-school art competitions or joint public art ventures across the city.

This is the second school adopted by Zindagi Trust after the successful turnaround of SMB Fatima Jinnah Government Girls School.