Artists raise funds for Uttarakhand flood victims

Goonj an NGO,has been undertaking relief operation in the flood affected regions of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Heavy rainfall and cloud burst in Uttarakhand last month had led to floods and landslides leaving in its wake a trail of death and destruction in the state.

“For us we cannot contribute in any other way than what we do best. Though this is a small drop in the ocean we are happy that we have been able to contribute for this noble cause,” says Chakladar who adds he is grateful to the donors.

Monidipa Dey,a photographer who has given two of her paintings for auction for the same exhibition points out that it a good idea to bring together photographers on a common platform. “We can’t go and be physically present there. So we need to do something about it,” says Dey. In a bid to encourage people to donate more for the relief fund,some organisers are even gifting artworks as an incentive.

“As a token of appreciation,we are gifting paintings to those who have contributed Rs 5000 and more to the Uttarakhand relief fund,” says Ravi Dhingra,founder of CAMERAunLIMITED which collaborated with Goonj in organising the exhibitions.

“We have collected Rs 72,000 so far and by the time the exhibitions gets over on August 5,we hope we could contribute at least Rs 4 lakh. It might even go up depending on the sales,” says Dhingra.

He says more artists are keen to come forward to extend a helping hand. Besides donating their works of art,some artists have contributed in monetary terms too even buying each others work.

“In total,36 artists are on board. 15 more are willing to come up but due to constraint of space in the gallery we are not being able to accommodate them. However,as and when the paintings will move out,we will give them space,” he says.

Another NGO,Abeda Ganga Mayya Trust,which has doing social service in remote villages of Uttarakhand since 2003 has organised an Art camp “Art for Action” to raising funds for its project “Clean Ganga Clean Himalaya”. A total of 15 artists and photographers have so far contributed their works to the camp.

The trust says it has decided to sell off all artwork they collected from the camp and use that amount to construct houses for the flood victims. The trust plans to build 60

houses in the first phase. In another exhibition on art and sculptures held recently here,contemporary artists from varied backgrounds,styles and schools of thought put on sale their works.

“We plan to donate a percentage of the total sales to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund. We have especially lowered the prices to increase the sales of the paintings,otherwise it would have a no-show,” says Rajan Arora,who has curated the exhibition titled ‘Spandan’.