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“The public is oblivious of the impact the pandemic has on children. In order to ensure maximum accessibility to and participation of children and communities, island-wide, all digital interactive sessions will be facilitated in Sinhala, Tamil, English, and Sign Language.ĭe Chickera said that the objective of the festival was to address the most pressing issues for children, one of the most vulnerable groups and perhaps the most overlooked during the pandemic.
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The open-source art exhibition features the artworks of over 140 children and is curated by two child artists: Acsah Kulasingham and Amani Naeemullah. In fact, six of the 20 artworks commissioned were proposed by child artists. The festival was curated to represent artists of different capacities and experience, to allow children also to participate. Out of 80 applicants, 20 works of art were selected for the festival. Between De Chickera’s experience in live performance and Hegoda’s experience in film, they were able to cover a vast area in terms of artistic skill. His directorial debut feature won awards locally and was officially selected for several international film festivals, including the prestigious BFI London Film Festival in 2014. Her co-curator, Malith Hegoda is a filmmaker who began his career as a photographer and a publicist for theatre and film. She works with students, teachers, and schools to help strengthen and introduce creative processes into formal and informal learning. The German organisation KNH was more than happy to provide funding.ĭe Chickera is an artistic director and founder member of STG, an ensemble theatre company producing socially and politically conscious original Theatre. “There was no money, opportunity or motivation for artists to work because of the pandemic,” said De Chickera. STG found this the ideal situation to curate a festival on behalf of artists who were going through a rough time due to the pandemic. We wanted to let artistes exercise their own individuality, offer them freedom and responsibility, with regard to their artform.” But with the pandemic, doing productions was next to impossible. There is a lot of meddling and micromanaging by patrons.
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“Or artists are told what to do too often. She pointed out that there aren’t many commissioning programmes in Sri Lanka and artistes have to struggle to fund their own projects. “As a theatre company, STG always believes that artists should be commissioned and be given the freedom to work,” said Curator Ruwanthie de Chickera. The purpose of the Children in Lockdown Arts Festival is to bring together children, artists, educators, families, and communities to understand and creatively address the impact of the pandemic on children in Sri Lanka. The Festival will also provide a platform for communities to meet, discuss, debate, and communicate on the issues faced by children during the pandemic, through talks, panel discussions, workshops, and forums led by children, adults, artists, and professionals working with children. On the guidance of Festival Director Piumi Wijesundara, the festival will unfold under six themes, vulnerable children, digital wellbeing, health and wellbeing, families, schooling and abuse during the pandemic, and each segment will have a viewing of related artwork and an artiste talk, including child artistes, followed by a panel discussion. They include theatre performances, art installations, puppet shows, short-film screenings, and artist talks. The Festival is the culmination of a six-month programme curated by Stages Theatre Group (STG) and supported by Kindernothilfe (KNH), through which 20 artworks, addressing the challenges faced by children during the pandemic, were commissioned. The Children in Lockdown Arts Festival 2021, to be held from November 26 to 28, 2021, live on Zoom, and livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube in parallel, will bring together artists, children, and adults to reflect on the treatment and experiences of children in Sri Lanka during the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual arts festival that examines pandemic’s effects on children