Islamabad - Leading cultural institutions of twin cities like Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) and Lok Virsa celebrated the year 2015 with over 200 cultural programmes that involved the masses in exploring the soft expressions of art as well as promote cultural values among the young generation.
The federal capital was considered as a dull area in terms of activities of visual and performing arts and both of the leading organizations working under the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage remained busy in building the image of the capital as cultural face of the country.
“The main goal of the cultural institutions is to bring correction in the identity of the coming generation and sure that the cultural identity is rooted well among them,” said Dr Fouzia Saeed, Executive Director Lok Virsa while talking to APP.
“Culture should perform a healing role for the nation which becomes healthier if there is plenty of cultural activities,” she said.
Keeping in view the importance of promoting the cultural values, the National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage, Lok Virsa arranged over 100 programmes to promote cultural heritage of the country.
These programmes included exhibitions, festivals, training workshops, youth activities, musical evenings, movie screenings, annual Mela and visits of thousands of students to Heritage Museum under Lok Virsa’s popular theme, “Harnessing Culture towards Education”.
On the other hand, PNCA also engaged general public in colourful activities through cultural shows, exhibitions of visual art, musical evenings to acknowledge the life time achievements of the artists, drama and film festivals, celebration of national days, cultural competitions, workshops of unique arts, summer art classes and performing art shows for visiting dignitaries throughout the year.
Besides these events, the National Puppet Theatre of PNCA took the cultural values to different rural areas of the country to create awareness among the rural masses about the value of their cultural heritage.
The talent hunt shows continued throughout the year to explore the hidden talent of the young generation in the field of singing, dancing, acting and comparing.
Talking to APP, Director General PNCA, Muhammad Naeem said, the PNCA serve the masses as an academy of various art forms where the people of every age can have informative entertainment as well as get a taste of the skills introduced by the masters in different fields.
The cultural and art activities can play a role to keep people positive and relax through their soft expressions and create an ambiance which is soothing and relaxing for people of every age, he said, adding that “Cultural activities are a way to portray soft image of the country across the world, as Pakistani nation has strong cultural values to eradicate terrorism and extremism.