LAHORE: A Culture Review Committee meeting headed by Additional Secretary Culture Nazia Jabeen was held at her office in Civil Secretariat on Friday in which a number of key decisions were taken to promote art and cultural activities through different art councils.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture, Punjab Council of Arts, Lahore Arts Council, Bab-e-Pakistan, Director of Lyallpur Museum, Faisalabad, and other stakeholders from various cultural organizations.

The cultural review committee has been formed to plan and review the cultural activities of field formations of the Information and Culture Department and to provide valuable input by discussion and collaboration.

It was decided in the meeting that art and culture activities for children should be increased as there is a dearth of activities for children such as storytelling, plays for children, publishing of literature for children and providing them avenues to showcase their talent through visual and performing arts.

It was also decided in the meeting that tributes would be paid to living legends, artists for their contribution in the field of performing arts. It noted there had been a tradition to pay tributes to artistes after their demise but now it was time to change this approach and the emphasis was on the fact that artistes should be paid tribute during their lifetime.

A decision to hold a series of talent-hunt shows and give awards to the youth to encourage young people in art, music and dramatics was also reached in the meeting. The individuals or arts councils would also be awarded for introducing new ideas and taking initiatives to promote art and culture.

Another important aspect was also discussed and agreed in the meeting that each government-run cultural institution should have an active social media teams and training of social media for effective promotion was also emphasized. The training would be given to individuals working at different arts councils. Collaboration between LAC, PILAC, PUCAR and other autonomous bodies of the Information and Culture department was also agreed upon to come up with mega cultural events.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2023