Introducing the young minds to Zainul, Quamrul and Sultan

Mustafa Monwar, Qayyum Chowdhury, Hashem Khan and Kalidas Karmakar at the event

The function kicked off with an inaugural ceremony in the auditorium. Qayyum Chowdhury was the chief guest. Mustafa Monwar, Hashem Khan, Rafiqun Nabi and Chairman of the Bengal Foundation Abul Khair were present as special guests.

While speaking on the objective of the festival John Sperandio, CEO of ISD said, "It's imperative for the students to know the arts, artists and culture of the host country as well as their native country. And this festival helps the students to enrich their knowledge through exhibiting the old masters and through the workshops."

In his speech Abul Khair said, "This festival features the paintings of the three great Masters: Zainul Abedin, Quamrul Hassan and SM Sultan, who opened the door for modern arts in the country and developed their own unique styles." He continued, "This is our second such venture and we seek to display the works of our greatest artists to school children."

Rafiqun Nabi exclaimed, "Who knows, may be the future Zainul, Quamrul and Sultan are right before our eyes."

Hashem Khan thanked the Bengal Foundation for promoting the art history of Bangladesh. Mustafa Monwar advised the enthusiastic students, "You need to immerse yourself in creative work and this should be given a priority."

Qayyum Chowdhury said, "The three painters portrayed Bangladesh from three diverse angles but all of them had some pastoral elements in their work."

After the inaugural session, there was a sitar recital by Ebadul Haq Shaikat accompanied by Pinu Sen Das on the tabla .

The ISD-Bengal Foundation Arts Festival comprised of three parts. The first section is the art exhibition, comprising of 140 paintings of the veteran and contemporary artists of the country. These include 40 rare works by Zainul, 6 by Sultan and 29 paintings by Quamrul from the personal collections of Abul Khair. The other paintings on display are by Shafiuddin Ahmed, Md Kibria, Qayyum Chowdhury, Murtaza Bashir and many others. Another section has the works of the ISD students.

The second part of the festival comprises of the art workshops facilitated by the noted artists: Hashem Khan, Abdus Shakur, Rafiqun Nabi, Khalid Mahmud Mithu, Rokeya Sultana, Kanak Champa Chakma, Kalidas Karamakar, Rafi Haq and Abul Barq Alvi.

Tamanna Rahman and her troupe will also hold a dance workshop.

The third part of the festival is the musical performances by different artistes, CRP children, Shishu Bikash Kendra and ISD school children. A puppet show will be organised on the last day, directed by Mustafa Monwar. The festival will continue till June 16.