Date:21/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/21/stories/2008082151880200.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Art festival hopes to draw epic participation

Staff Reporter

Vagdevi Art Festival is based on the Mahabharata
It is for students in 5th to 10th standards

Bangalore: Hoping to bring together 4,000 to 5,000 students from over 100 schools — government and private, the Vagdevi Art Festival this year at the Vagdevi Vilas School in Marathahalli will be based on the Mahabharata.

Being held between August 28 and 30, the cultural festival is being conducted by the Vagdevi Vilas Education Foundation for students studying in the fifth standard to 10th standard.

The foundation, which has been organising science and arts festivals in alternate years, wants the epic to be central to all of the art competitions, making the themes, motifs and values present in the epic, a part of the competition. The competition is open to the public.

“Our aim is that children should represent curricular as well as extra-curricular activities,” says K. Harish, president, Vagdevi Vilas Foundation. Besides competitions in over 25 art fields, including music, dance, theatre, poetry-recitation, photography and essay-writing, the festival features a film festival, kathakali performances, a local-cuisine exhibition, book exhibition among various other attractions for children.

The Vagdevi Art Festival will be inaugurated by Aravind Limbavalli, Higher Education Minister, while the art exhibition will be inaugurated by Primary and Secondary Education Minister Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri.

For registrations, which close on August 25, call Ph: 9980505115 and 9986683518.