Students at the photography exhibition at Gyan Manch. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

A platform for creative arts created in the city by and for youths is ready to reach other parts of the country with the launch of a project.

“Many young people who are interested in creative arts often lose track while going through the rigmarole of formal education. Lok and now Project Yuva gives them the platform to showcase their talent,” said Soumyajit Majumdar, the founder-director of Lok.

The second-year mass communication and videography student of St Xavier’s College had formed the organisation a year ago to cater to the creative needs of city youths.

The core committee of 30 comprised students of St Xavier’s, Jadavpur University, Presidency College and Loreto College, who were interested in photography, film-making, music, theatre, dance, creative writing and fine arts.

In the next six months, Project Yuva will travel to Delhi, Pune and Ahmedabad and set up local student networks. “Through Project Yuva we are looking at increasing interaction among students of various cities,” said Majumdar.

Young artists, musicians, dancers, writers and many others came together at Gyan Manch on Monday to display their works and interact with each other at the launch of the project.

“I heard about this project from a friend who is also a photographer. This is a wonderful opportunity to interact with other photographers and students and show your work to them,” said Sneha Paul, a second-year student of NSHM Knowledge Campus, whose photographs were on display at the venue.

Prose and poetry readings, and street dance and acoustic music sessions were held in front of the indoor canteen at the venue.

“Because of space constraints, we could only allow young people to perform on a first-come-first-served basis. The response was phenomenal,” said Majumdar.

Lok also staged a musical, Kalakar ki Kahani, based on Rabindranath Tagore’s Juta Abishkar, for which it has won accolades at theatres festivals across the country.