Contemporary Sikh Art Exhibition with Sikh Museum Initiative 12th May – 31st July 2018

12/05/2018 – 31/07/2018

The Contemporary Sikh Art exhibition was launched in the heart of Leicester on 11th May at the Leicester Adult Skills and Learning Service , initiated by the Sikhmuseum initiatiative and ArtSikh. The exhibition was opened by Assistant City Mayor-Councillor Manjula Sood and will be on until 31st July 2018. The evening was hosted by the Kartar Singh (Sikh Museum Initiative), who explained the importance of having such events where the rich the history of the Sikh faith could be explored. Kerry Grey (Head of Leicester City Council’s Adult Skills and Learning Service) welcomed the visitors who came from across the UK. Councillor Manjula Sood gave thanks to the all the team members of both groups who put the exhibition together and how events like this can bring communities together. The highlight of the evening was the children of Falcons Primary School, Leicester who gave renderings of Sikh prayers. Jasbir Kaur Mann headteacher of the school explained how hard the children had worked for the launch as well as the children submitting portraits for the exhibition. This was followed by Gurinder Singh Mann (Director-Sikh Museum Initiative) thanking everyone for their hard work and commitment to the project. Taranjit Singh (on behalf of Art Sikh – Sumanjit Kaur) explained how they worked with artists including professionals and some who have never exhibited before has led to the nurturing of Sikh talent across the UK and the world. Bhagwant Kaur ended with 3 beautiful poems read to the sangat.
The exhibition working to support The Sikh Museum Initiative, was launched to aspire to open the wider audience to visually experience Sikh history and theology, through the creative contemplation’s of various artists and their creations, playing an influential role in conveying the Sikh narrative today. Art Sikh curated the exhibition to be a passage to another method of connecting with generations distant from the Punjab as to what Sikhism is about, but more than that it was a visual tribute to the teachings and philosophy of Sikhism that have previously seen limited considerations across the Sikh Domain. We hoped to create an ambiance of the exhibition to evoke a variety of feelings for a range of visitor experiences. The bold uniform white space aided the flow of artworks for visitors to view with ample space to step back and take in the visual creativity of each piece. There is a clear diversity through the range of paintings, depicting the Sikh Gurus, Punjabi life/ culture followed by selected personalities from Sikh history in a range of circumstances and also the artworks from pupils from the local Falcons Primary school.
ArtSikh also hosted two days of arts & crafts activities open to the public, giving all community groups the opportunity to come in and create some artworks inspired by the exhibition working alongside professional artists.
We would like to thank all the contributing artists and to all the people involved in putting this exhibition together, without which none of this would be possible.

For full photo album please follow link: https://www.facebook.com/pg/artsikher/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2045207559071959