NCC rewards winners of ‘Artists in Residence’ painting competition |09 August 2021
Danyl Larue from Takamaka school took the special primary award
Pupils from five schools who took part in the ‘Artists in Residence’ art project were on Friday rewarded for their outstanding paintings done under the theme ‘Re-Emergence’.
This was in a short ceremony at the National Museum of History.
The ‘Artist in Residence’ project was spearheaded by renowned artist and chairperson of the National Arts Council, Martin Kennedy, with the support of the National Council for Children (NCC) and sponsors such as Penlac, Fouhan, Hilton Allamanda Resort and Vijay Patel.
Four secondary schools, namely Beau Vallon, English River, Plaisance and Vijay International School on Praslin and one primary school, Takamaka, took part in the project and each school was assigned a local artist who worked with a small group of pupils and helped them transfer their feelings and experiences onto canvas under the theme ‘Re-Emergence’.
First place went to Alisha Nibourette from English River secondary school. According to Ms Nibourette, her painting depicts “some people who were infected with Covid-19 being able to come back home to their families and in the same way people and animals were able to return to their land in Australia after the huge bush fires there had been put out.”
Second place went to Libby Thelermont from Beau Vallon secondary school. She describes her work of art as “the lockdown finished and we all felt relieved, people are removing their masks and taking deep breaths, feeling free.”
Marianne Brioche from Vijay International School was ranked third and she describes her painting as “life re-emerging from death in the form of a tree growing from a skull.”
There were two fourth place finishers ‒ Eva Assari from Vijay International School and Ashly Morgan from Plaisance secondary school.
Ms Assari has described her art as “representing re-emergence of the planets and the universe recovering after being destroyed, returning in a different form with new things”.
As for Ms Morgan, she said she wanted to show “our people fighting to be free from Covid-19,” adding that “Seychelles will re-emerge from Covid-19 as long as our people stay together and do what must be done.”
A special primary award went to young artist Danyl Larue from Takamaka school whose painting depicts “our Creole traditional work of picking cinnamon barks. We have almost forgotten about it and now we are starting it again.”
A People’s Choice Award based on the tableau that received the most votes from the public who visited the exhibition was attributed to Deogracia Ndalla.
The pupils’ artworks were judged by a panel of three judges. The exhibition was officially launched on Monday July 19, 2021 giving members of the public the opportunity to view the artworks of the talented young children who took part in the ‘Artists in Residence’ project to commemorate the ‘Festival Zanfan’ in June 2021.
This project was launched by the NCC with support from Dr Erna H. Athanasius, Seychelles’ Ambassador for Women and Children who is also the chairperson of the NCC board.
“Looking at the works we see today, I feel confident that the participating children have been able to both consolidate and extend their understanding of not only the theme which triggered the project – ‘Re-emergence’ ‒ but also themselves and each other. Art not only elevates us, it also enhances our understanding of life in a world which is increasingly complex, and I very much hope that through this programme the children were able to recognise the power of communication using visual materials,” Mr Kennedy highlighted.
As for NCC chief executive Yasmin Umarji, she congratulated all the young artists and thanked all the sponsors and parents who supported the children.
“This event today concludes the Children’s Festival but this is not the end of the activities. We feel very privileged standing here celebrating the children’s talents. Even with Covid-19, we did not give up the idea of celebrating the children. We had six activities for the children’s festival – a musical medley, a photography competition, the artists’ in residence, religious programme and the Creole stories. We had to postpone the seminars due to the restrictions. We always talk about how children are having issues, but now let us talk about what the children did during the pandemic. We should see the pandemic as an opportunity. We found local artists with whom the children spent one week and the final product is just amazing,” noted Ms Umarji.
Minister for Youth, Sports and Family, Marie-Celine Zialor who was also in attendance to support the initiative and the winning pupils, congratulated them and the organisers for such a wonderful and unique competition.
“It is through the art that the soul manifests,” said Minister Zialor as she encouraged the Ministry of Education as well as the NCC to continue in the same line of activities.
The event was also graced by First Lady Linda Ramkalawan, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Seychelles, Guo Wei, Mayor of Victoria David André, principal secretary for culture Cécile Kalebi and Cyril Pillay, director general for early childhood primary education in the Ministry of Education.
Vidya Gappy
