DUBAI: “While any day makes for a great opportunity to celebrate the women in our lives,” says Anil Kejriwal, Founder, Artscrafts, a platform to promote arts and culture. “International Women’s Day is to celebrate womanhood.
Artscrafts had its first event-cum- art exhibition on March 2, in which 48 resident artists from the UAE sent their participating entries, with paintings themed on women.
The artists were from various countries such as India, Russia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Philippines and Belarus, besides others. The jury hailed from India, Oman and the UAE, and through social media, an online appeal was made to viewers to vote for the best artworks.
“Approximately, 50,000 votes were received in three days of online voting from across the globe and based on a combination of juries’ votes and online voting, awards were announced,” says Kejriwal. “It was very tough time for the jury who was online and at the exhibition venue, to decide the best artworks. The global acceptance of arts and artists are phenomenal.”
This was done on a consensus basis and the following results were declared:
Winners were Tanvi Atul kumar Patel (first prize); Pari Sagar and Vasilisa Eliseeva (second prize) and Aparna Mohan and Lipika Das (third prize).
The Popular Choice went to Annu Vikas Singh (highest vote); Soniya Mohammed Rafique (second highest vote) and Jisha Sameer (third highest vote).
The Next Gen Award was won by Tahleen Tarannum Mahek and the Certificate of Excellence was given to Kusum Dutta, Manjari Satsangi, Sumana Malakar, Mari Vinu, Anjini Laitu, Anastasia Volkova, Kingbrown, Rajul Shah, Clarisse Bautista and Iti Sethi.
The event was graced by art connoisseurs such as, Emirati artist Mr. Ahmed Al Awadhi (known as Rukni); Mr. Peter Gressman, Founder of artforumuae; Emirati businessman Mr. Ali Ahmed Saleh Shujaa Alafeefi; businessman Mr. Eissa Al Mazrouei; Managing Partner UHY Mr. James Mathew, renowned artist Mr. Atul Panase, social worker Mr. Girish Pant; Dr. Raghvendra, who is an orthopedic surgeon in Lifecare Group Hospital; Bank of Baroda Abu Dhabi head Mr. Y K Gupta; RPBG head Dr Romit Purohit; writer and motivational speaker Purva Grover and other personalities.
They spent time with the artists, appreciating the artworks and distributed the awards and certificates to the participants. Artscrafts encouraged each artist to explain their work and interact with the invitees.
“International Women’s Day, which is a globally recognised day that honors women’s incredible achievements, raises awareness and encourages people to advocate for gender equality,” says Kejriwal, who is a Chartered Accountant working in Abu Dhabi as a Director in Jindal Saw Group.
“Feminism isn’t about making women strong. Women are already strong! It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength. “
“Women are the real architects of society. To celebrate the contribution of women in our lives, Artscrafts organised the event, with women artists of the UAE.”
Among other things, the platform used digital media judiciously and celebrated womanhood with the invited artists and guests to reinforce the idea of upliftment of women in society. “We at Artscrafts are committed to giving women proper respect through their artworks,” Kejriwal concluded.
The event was sponsored by UHY James, audit and advisory firm, Dubai, and LLH hospital a unit of VPS health care group, Abu Dhabi.
The Artscrafts story is less than a year old and has emerged as a trusted name in the arts field within a short period.
The journey of artscraft.co began with one artist in June 2021, now links numerous artists from various backgrounds and locations.
During COVID-19 peak time in India in April 2021, a renowned Madhubani artist was in financial trouble, due to the closure of the school where she was working and no income from artworks.
To promote her artwork and her fellow artists from the same village, Kejriwal began this artscrafts.co platform. This inspired in connecting artists from remote areas internationally and showcase their artworks and sell them globally.
Currently, www.artscrafts.co hosts artists from more than 15 countries. Many artists with determination are also part of the platform.
Artscrafts has organised events such as India@75; International Children’s Day; UAE@50 and Sankatmochan. To promote this noble cause, the invaluable contributions of his family and all friends to name a rare like Mr. Anurag Chaturvedi, Mr. Hirdesh Gupta, Mr. Rohit Nanai, Mr. Nilesh Bagore, Mr. Girish Pant, and Padmashri artist Tilak Gitai cannot be forgone, says Mr. Kejriwal.
