Actor Pranjal Saikia (second from left) shows the paintings by children at a news conference on Monday. Picture by UB Photos

Oct. 10: Eleven hundred child artists will fill a 1,100-metre canvas with colours and imagination depicting their impression of Indian culture at a mega painting event this December.

The Sanskar Bharati Poorvotar, which through its project Vision 2020 hopes to preserve and nurture all art forms of the region, has taken up this innovative programme.

The grand Baal Kala Sangam began with a talent search today.

Coordinator of Assam Children Art Society, Pranjal Saikia, said: “The objective of this event is to promote the cultural heritage of this region on the national skyline. The children are the flag-bearers of tomorrow. Hence, the idea is to tap them and groom them.”

“The project has been planned by Sanskar Bharati Poorvotar to revive the cultural heritage in the eight states of the Northeast. There are 86 districts in the eight states, including Sikkim,” said Saikia.

The December event will begin with school-level competitions for two age groups — Group A for children between 8 and 11 years and Group B for students between 12 and 15 years.

“The competition will be held at the school level. The first, second and third position holders of both the groups will be selected for district-level competitions. The top 10 winners at the district-level competitions will be among those who will give the final strokes to the 1,100-metre painting,” he said.

All the short-listed artists will converge in Guwahati for the mega event to be held from December 29 to 31.

The theme of the 1,100-metre painting will be “Our culture, our identity” where the child artists will explore his thoughts on Indian heritage.

“We have no intention of limiting their thoughts, except that it will be necessary for them to depict any culture from the country,” he said.

The top 10 selected paintings of the competition will be displayed at Kala Utsav here.

Apart from that, the participants will also make an 11-foot painting in Kala Utsav.

To motivate the children, 100 established artists present during the event will add a few strokes to the painting.

“Music director J.P. Das along with artist Nani Borpuzari will be part of the mega event, while Mukesh Khanna from the Shaktiman fame will sign the certificates for the participants,” said the co-ordinator.