PANAJI: The 2019 edition of six-month-long annual offline campaign run by Faber-Castell India, “Art with Purpose” concluded in Goa on Saturday, with a remarkable growth of more than 15 per cent in numbers of school that participated this year. With the company’s vision in line to “unleash the creative potential” of young students, Faber-Castell India launched the Initiative in 2018 with 1500 schools as partners to host this competition. After a successful run in its first edition, it launched its second edition in 2019 with renewed enthusiasm of hosting it close to 2000 schools wherein 1.5 million students participated. Marketing Director at Faber-Castell India, Nisha Sara Jose, who was present at closing celebrations said “The core of the programme remains the same every year ie integrating art with subjects relevant to the child. We try to bring in a theme which will have a significant impact on the development of the child, this year it is sports - a very integral part of skill development. We want to make ‘Art with Purpose’ one of the most aspirational programme which is recognised in the education sector as a national-level art contest that adds value to their overall curriculum and helps build better individuals for tomorrow.” Partho Chakrabarti, managing director of Faber-Castell India said that the campaign was to encourage children to be as expressive as they could be and expressed happiness that the responses on this year’s entries had been beyond cricket. The company aim to grow significantly in the coming editions, he said.
Gracing the event were Prashanti Singh, Indian national basketball player and Deepak Chahar, Indian cricketer who were “intrigued” to learn about this campaign run by Faber-Castell India and the “creativity” that they had been bringing out in students. Prashanti Singh remarked that she was “thrilled to see some of the paintings of the winners and how young minds have been inspired by sports while, Deepak Chahar believed that “creativity enticed by the students in these art works were prolific and this initiative will help students to open up both creative and physical aspects of their personalities.” The 12 winners were in Goa for a two-day off-site where they did some sightseeing and spent some time at the Faber-Castell factory at Corlim to witness how products are made, followed by a day filled with celebrations with Prashanti Singh and Deepak Chahar where the first prize winners from all four groups were awarded a scholarship of Rs 75,000 each and second and third prize winners from all all groups have been awarded with medals and Faber-Castell goodies.