LAHORE: The Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture (Pilac) is establishing a Permanent Art Gallery for the promotion of the province’s culture and heritage, featuring personalities from the Sikh regime, music, film, television, poets and writers, Pilac Director General (DG) Dr Sughra Sadaf told Dawn.

Dr Sadaf said the gallery would feature Sufi traditions and portraits of Sufi saints and poets from Baba Farid to Pir Meher Ali Shah. Another section would be dedicated to the civilisations of Punjab, Taxila and Harappa. The music section will feature leading folk singers and other towering personalities from the field such as Noor Jahan, Alam Lohar, Tufail Niazi, Baba Chishti, Inayat Hussain Bhatti, Mehdi Hassan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Abida Parveen and many others. The performing arts section would also include leading stars from film, radio and TV.

She further said the gallery would also feature a remarkable collection of paintings by eminent artists and photographs of luminaries from visual arts such as Abdur Rehman Chughtai, Shakir Ali, Ustad Allah Bakhsh and other leading artists.

The gallery would also comprise a full section on the Sikh rulers with their photographs, such as Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Kharrak Singh and Sikh queens. This section would generate interest among Sikhs who also visited from across the border for pilgrimages, she added.

The DG said the institute had formed a team for gathering all the collections for the gallery. “We are also adding another section that will feature photographs of Punjab’s cultural heritage such as turban, hookah, traditional palangris and mooras. Work on the gallery is under way and it will soon be inaugurated wherein personalities from visual and performing arts will be invited.”

She said Pilac was setting up a café depicting Punjab’s heritage and culture where artists, writers and intellectuals would be able to spend quality time.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2020