The Children in Lockdown Arts Festival, scheduled for November 2021, is an initiative which hopes to bring together artists, children, and adults to reflect on the treatment and plight of children in Sri Lanka during the pandemic.
The festival will be the culmination of a six-month artist commissioning programme curated by Stages Theatre Group (STG), supported by Kindernothilfe Sri Lanka (KNH), through which 21 artworks that address the challenges faced by children during the pandemic, were commissioned. The 21 artworks have been created by both child and adult artists.
These 21 artworks, which include theatre performances, art installations, puppetry shows, short-film screenings, live performances, and art exhibitions, will be primarily released for the public during the Children in Lockdown Arts Festival.
The organisers shared that, while originally the festival was intended to be a hybrid festival – incorporating both physical and digital interactive sessions facilitated in Sinhala, Tamil, English, and Sign Language, due to the current climate, they have since moved it entirely to an online platform.
“Children in Lockdown – Virtual Art, Installation, and Photography Exhibition” is an important segment of the Children in Lockdown Arts Festival, and Festival Director Piumi Wijesundara shared that the programme will connect the festival with the voices of children across the country, feeding it with their opinions, experiences, and imagination.
To be held as an open-source digital exhibition, curated and disseminated virtually, she shared that this exhibition will provide children the opportunity and the freedom to give creative expression to their perspectives of the pandemic. “It will give a voice to so many children who are undergoing and experiencing quite a difficult and unusual time right now,” said Wijesundara, adding that so far, they have received some incredibly imaginative submissions from children, expressing their experiences in online learning and other experiences during the lockdown. Further, Wijesundara added that there’s plenty of time left for kids who wish to participate to send in their submissions.
She also shared that while the Children in Lockdown Festival will be curated by playwright and director Ruwanthie de Chickera and film director Malith Hegoda, the Children in Lockdown – Virtual Art, Installation, and Photography Exhibition will be run and entirely curated by 18-year-old Acsah Kulasingham.
The exhibition
The exhibition is open to all children in Sri Lanka under 18 years of age. Children may send in their artworks independently, or through their schools. There are no age categories; instead, the common themes are open to children of all ages to interpret as they see fit.
The artworks will respond to the central theme and some related questions, which will focus on children’s positive and negative experiences of lockdown.
All submitted artworks will be exhibited on a digital platform open to the public, and some selected artworks will be showcased actively within the Children in Lockdown Festival.
Each child is entitled to send a maximum of four artworks on either:
1) The best or worst experiences during the pandemic or,
2) Their personal stories of life during the pandemic.
The artworks can belong to any of the following categories: physical art (including paintings, sketches, drawings, doodles, graffiti, etc.), digital art (including graphics, digital collages, and anything computer generated), arts and crafts (including sculptures, pottery, textile crafts, and/or any other ornamental art form etc.), photography, and other (cartoons, comic strips, art involving both digital and physical elements, etc.).
Along with the artworks, children also have the option of sending a 30-second video talking about what this artwork means to them.
Send in your artworks (scans or clear photographs) with your artwork title, name, age, date of birth, school, and contact details, through our online submission form available on www.stages.lk/application-form.
Applications will be open till 30 September. To apply, visit: www.stages.lk/application-form. For inquiries, visit info@stages.lk or call 076 611 1184.
