An evening... amidst the work of young artists

Goa's newspapers seldom give such events the deserved attention. We seldom celebrate our abilities, achievements or skills and successes. In the rush to get at the 'bad news', such developments get swept under the carpet.

For a change, a photo in a local newspaper (Herald) alerted readers to the fact that the Goa College of Art was marking its annual open-house event. One had been to the same event some 2-3 years earlier, and had found it quite interesting.

Being a Saturday, it coincided with the evening-out with the daughter. We ran into some of my friends and one of Riza's best friends there. But, apart from that all, there was an interesting variety of art and skills on show.

Glass blowing (with specialists in from Chennai), soft-stone carving, traditional painting, bead jewellry, mat work (suddenly one realises how time-consuming and back-breaking it can be to make a single mat, strand by strand), print making, mural design, portraiture, screen printing and computer graphics (one mentioned to a couple of young people the Free Software tools which are drawing attention in this slot), design and advertising, landscape and still life, painting, photography, and students art and engraving.

Most of the talent came from students themselves, though there were some specialists brought in to cope with certain fields.

Mehendi, the art of hand-painting, done at Rs 20 per hand by young girl-students, caught the fancy of children and women at the event. In another hall, the art of rangoli (floor-painting) took on another meaning, as artistic portraits were done up by collegians.

Young children were also given a chance to take part in a drawing contest. (You need to take your colours along. It continues on Sunday evening, Jan 22, too.)

"I wish our open day was as much fun," said a scientist friend from the National Institute of Oceanography, who was a schoolmate almost a generation ago.

Willy Goes, who shared his college days with our generation and is now a lecturer at the art college, was around. He mentioned his second book 'Khand' is to be released on Jan 31, 2006 at 5 pm (Institute Menezes Braganza, Panjim). Willy was a one-time photographer with The Navhind Times.

Till recently an RJ (radio jockey) Cajetan "Caje" Vaz, who happens to be a long-timer advertising professional, was also there. He mentioned an earlier offer to help talk to students of the college in advertising-related themes. Just goes to show how little we tap the skills that exist in Goa itself.

Sangeeta Naik, wife of our journalist-entrepreneur-publisher Niraj of DigitalGoa.com, mentioned plans for a seminar on computers in education, sometime in early March 2006. She's now at the Goa University.

The students put up a good show. Incidentally, last academic year (2004-05), the event was held as part of the IFFI. So, while the artists-in-the-making were lured with the promise of larger audiences, their work and focus probably got dissipated amidst all fanfare that surrounded Goa's first-ever IFFI.

This was, by the way, the same college earlier rocked by allegations of a gang-rape. While the media initially sensationalised the case, as typical, they just failed to do the follow-up of this (as with other sensationsalised cases in Goa). So, while some were convinced that the accused-then-acquitted young men had been wronged, Goa probably just doesn't know enough of what happened or what lead to the accusations.

That apart, it just goes to show that young students here can indeed perform. If only given the chance. The questions: Will they be able to tap their potential without having to migrate out of Goa? With so much right-brain talent coming out of Goa (mainly in creative fields, including advertising, music, food, and other people-skills) can this region work out a suitable model to have it tapped?

The answers, as they would say, are blowing in the wind...