Gallery for disabled artists opens at UNESCO house

As part of an inclusive initiative, a temporary art gallery titled 'Not Just Art', dedicated to Indian artists with disabilities, was inaugurated by union minister G Kishan Reddy at UNESCO Cluster House, in Delhi.

The unique gallery has over 125 paintings done by disabled artists across 15 Indian states, and showcases their amazing talent with colour and form. It will be open for public viewing on November 5-7 from 9 am to 5 pm, UNESCO said.

To honour the talent of artists with disability, the first edition of 'Discovering Ability' art awards was also organised. The award celebrates the artistic abilities of persons with disability, who have hitherto remained a largely unrecognised talent pool.

The artists were awarded with a cash prize of Rs 50,000. They are Amrit Khurana and Rohit Anand, both autistic artists; Niral Hareshbhai Swati, an artist with intellectual disability; Mohammed Yasar who participated in the Paralympic Art World Cup in 2019; and Durgesh Kumar Rathore, an artist with dyslexia and bibliophobia among others.

"Enabling the participation of persons with disabilities in artistic and cultural life is a key priority for UNESCO. (The initiative adds to) disability-focused interventions in India. It signals our commitment to empower persons with disabilities to become both mainstream consumers and producers of art forms.," Eric Falt, UNESCO Director, New Delhi said.

"If it's the tag of just an artist, it would hardly get noticed. If we say disabled artist, people will still sit up and take notice. The awards feels like a great recognition," said Aarti Khurana, mother of an autistic artist.

The jury was a panel of three eminent judges from the Department of Fine Arts, Sarojini Naidu College of Arts and Communication, Hyderabad, UNESCO said.