LAHORE: The Punjab Council of the Arts is going to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the School Education Department to engage schools and their students to undertake activities of performing and visual arts.

“We will hold workshops and talks under this MoU and with the help of social media, the students of all age groups would be encouraged to indulge in arts and crafts,” said art council’s Executive Director Saman Rai while talking to Dawn.

She said the MoU’s draft was ready to be signed by the ministers of both the departments whose secretaries had already agreed to launch this mutual project.

The project is likely to be launched from Sept 20.

Ms Rai said horizon of the project was vast and it’s the first time that the Punjab Council of the Arts had proposed art competitions under the MoU and a Whatsapp group of nearly 2,000 art teachers was there for sharing the best practices from across the globe.

“It’s the first of its kind project where more than 10m students of public sector schools will be engaged in art-related competitions”.

Ms Rai said the council was carrying out the project with coordination of the School Education Department as it also got funds of its own, raw material would be brought by children themselves and themes and technical input would be provided by the council.

She said one of the basic objectives of the project was to fight off negative trends among the children through art and craft activities. Experience in design, art, and crafts could generate interest in them and they would learn to act and think like designers and artists, working intelligently and creatively, she added.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2019