ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) and Foundation for Arts, Culture and Education (FACE) launched country’s first music residency programme, Heritage Live. It aims to equip indigenous artists with the business acumen and focuses on skill development. The programme will help the vulnerable musicians to generate sustainable income and play a pivotal role in preserving the endangered local culture.
The opening ceremony of the Art Residency Programme was held at Lok Virsa - National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage on Sunday. Senator Faisal Javed attended the inauguration ceremony as the chief guest and lauded the efforts of PPAF and FACE for the unique initiative.
Speaking on this occasion, Faisal Javed said, “Artists are the face of a nation, if we want Pakistan to prosper then we must work towards the empowerment of our artist community. I would like to congratulate both PPAF and FACE for taking a step in the right direction.
The Art Residency Programme will enable us to show the true positive image of Pakistan. This programme will help artists understand the digital platforms; the digital world as we all know is a diverse world. It will not only allow them in creating a mark for them but will give them global acknowledgement.”
CEO PPAF, Qazi Azmat Isa, also highlighted the organization’s vision of reducing poverty and helping the vulnerable communities through innovative interventions. “PPAF is at the forefront of preserving indigenous culture and helping vulnerable communities. There are two main reasons for starting this residency programme. Firstly, we intend to create livelihood opportunities for artists in far flung areas of Pakistan, areas which have not been tapped before. Secondly, we believe that artists are our identity and it is vital that we give them the social recognition they deserve. Therefore, this programme will help us to generate employment opportunities for our artists and enable them to increase their reach across Pakistan.”
The Art Residency is a unique extension of PPAF’s mandate and commitment to poverty alleviation, as the selected musicians face many economic problems. The Art Residency is to test a systematic approach for graduating poor musicians out of poverty by leveraging their skills in art more effectively and equipping them with other non-music skills.”
Zeejah Fazli, Founder of FACE, said, “Foundation of Arts, Culture and Education (FACE) aims to strengthen communities through art and cultural interventions since 2014 and is now the largest cultural organisation working on mega projects such as Face Music Mela, Indus Blues and womart.pk. One of the newest additions to the list now is first-time music residency programme Heritage Live in collaboration with Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund. Through the programme, we aspire to empower the indigenous musicians of Pakistan and preserve instruments and sounds that are on the verge of extinction.”
The Residency started from August 16, 2020 and will end on September 02, 2020 at Lok Virsa Islamabad. Twenty indigenous musicians have been selected for the programme. Ten maestros and 10 apprentices will go through an extensive training programme by four mentors and finish with each pair recording a song. Four thematic areas will be covered through the training mainly, musical training, business training, personality development and technological skills.
These musicians have been selected from across the country and represent marginalised communities. They play some of the rarest instruments including Sarinda, Burindo, Raanti and Chardah, the sounds of which have long been forgotten.
