Devcom announces ‘RCS Himalayan Odyssey Award for Creative Arts’ 2024

Islamabad : Devcom-Pakistan (Development Communications Network) on Saturday announced the details of the seventh category of Pakistan Mountains Pride Awards (PAMPA) for 2024, titled ‘Raja Changez Sultan Himalayan Odyssey Award for Creative Arts’.

In an online artists meetup, the founder of the PAMPA and Executive Director Devcom-Pakistan Munir Ahmed said three artists will be given the RCS Himalayan Odyssey Award for Creative Arts for their best work on the mountain themes. The categories for nominations of the creative arts include paintings, sculptures, and digital art. The best artworks will be chosen from their exhibitions on the themes. The artists can share the details of the exhibition of their artwork to the organizers at the Devcom-Pakistan. A three-member jury comprising the well-known artists will scrutinize all the data of the exhibits and select one artist from each category; paintings, sculptures and digital art for the Award.

Briefing about the objectives of the RCS Himalayan Odyssey Award for Creative Arts, Munir Ahmed said primarily, we are adding this category to engage artists from various fields to focus on the challenges confronting the grandeur of mountains, its people and resources that are very vital for the people living downstream. Most of the 250 million people are unaware of what is happening in the highlands. Devcom-Pakistan aspires to engage the artist-community in raising the significance of mountains for life on earth. Besides, the pieces of art will also decorate the buildings and houses with enhanced aesthetics.

Munir Ahmed said: Pakistan is blessed with 11 ranges of mountains that have their own characteristics and treasures of natural resources, which are being depleted. It is the time to raise collective-voice on the exploitation of the mountain resources, and encourage the shared conservation and protection of the mountain resources. Pakistan Mountains Pride Awards (PAMPA), launched in 2019, is a very important organ of Pakistan Mountain Festival, a flagship annual event of Devcom-Pakistan. It is a gesture of recognition and appreciation to the services of the marvelous individuals and organizations that have laid the foundation of the initiatives to improve the lives and livelihood of the natives, or rendered their life selflessly for mountain conservation, community development.

He said the Raja Changez Sultan Himalayan Odyssey Award for Creative Arts will add a new colour to the bouquet of existing six awards including Agostino Da Polenza Mountain Conservation Award, Shoaib Sultan Khan Mountain Community Development Award, Nazir Sabir Mountaineering Award,Ashraf Aman Sustainable Mountain Tourism Award, Ustad Jan Ali Mountain Music Award, and the PPAF Best Mountain Small and Medium Enterprises Award.

The artists present on the occasion appreciated the Devcom-Pakistan efforts to engage artists in a very important voluntary campaign for the conservation and protection of mountains. Senior Nigar Nazar said launching the Award will be a significant initiative that would encourage artists to focus on mountains. She suggested including art mentoring and art education in this regard.

Asrar Farooqi said the artists shall take responsibility for spreading the word about the Raja Changez Sultan Himalayan Odyssey Award for Creative Arts in their native towns to engage them in the initiative.

Saima Raza suggested organizing the exhibition of the selected pieces of art in different cities to achieve the objective. Some of the artists also took responsibility to coordinate the exhibition in their towns with the coordination of the local departments and authorities.