Shikkhalok, an education bulletin of Centre for Development Innovation and Practises (CDIP), has been celebrating its era of publication throughout the year. As part of this, CDIP has recently organised a group art exhibition entitled 'The Elegance of Artistic Expression' from 6 to 9 November at the art gallery of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. More than 60 artists from various parts of the country with more than 100 paintings and other art works participated in this 4-day long programme.

On 6 November afternoon, the exhibition was inaugurated by Hasnat Abdul Hye, the famous litterateur and art critic of the country. He said in his speech that the exhibition was distinct for the varieties it embraced. There were paintings by senior and young artists, and also 65 drawings by children of 22 high schools from districts outside Dhaka.

It is truly remarkable that children's drawings selected from drawing workshops organised by CDIP as part of its open library programme, so far running in 52 school/colleges in 13 districts, were placed in the exhibition, which drew significant attention of visitors. Besides these, a number of Shikkhalok covers on display, out of 54 issues published since 2014, also made visitors pause to appreciate their beauty and depth. All this has made the Elegance of Artistic Expression a show of unique beauty celebrating varieties in a harmonic way.

The works of Rafique Siddiqui (he died in 2019; a painting entitled No More War, Save Humanity by him was used on the cover of July-August issue of Shikkhalok in 2015), Monirul Alam (Nature, acrylic on canvas), Abhijit Chowdhury (Lalon, acrylic), Zahid Mustafa (Liberation war of Bangladesh, Mixed media on paper), Rubina Nargis (Red Trap, Acrylic), Anwar Kabir Chowdhury (Mysterious Nature, Acrylic), Mohiuddin Ahmed (City Scape, Pen and ink), Md. Abdul Quader Bhuiyan (Phase, Acrylic), Trivedi Gupu (Nature, Mix media), Bijoy Chanda (Thrilling days of harvesting paddy, Acrylic), Subrata Basak (Hridoyonondono bone, woodcut), Tarit Barua (Free Bird, Acrylic), Uttam Kumer Talukder (Lunch time, Mixed), Mahin Mahnuma (Terracotta horses, Oil on canvas), Kingshuk Das Chowdhury (In search of affinity, Linocut), Sukanta Sen Gupta (Flight to freedom, Acrylic), Subhasree Gunjan (Universal form, Water colour), Touhid Shimul (Echoes of silence, Acrylic), Uttam Guha (At the end of the day, Acrylic), Farhana Afroz Bappy (Impression-55, acrylic), Nargisakter Punam (This means happiness celebrated life, Acrylic), Shamsul Alam Azad (Red road, Acrylic), Mahjabin Rahim Moitry, Harmony of colours, Mixed media), Shakila Khan Chayan (Frida's shadow, acrylic), Nahida Sharmin (Beauty of Nature, acrylic on canvas), Shameem Akanda (Women and nature, soft pastels), Shahida Akter (Inward embrace, acrylic on canvas), Mukti Bhowmik (Shadows of Shraban, Aluminium), Nasima Nila (Living, acrylic), Azfar Ul Alam (The forgotten friend, acrylic on canvas), Nazneen Amin (In the presence of Rabindranath, Watercolour), Sushanta Kumar Adhikary (The crow eats human eyes, Tempera on board paper), Shamset Tabrejee (Sickness from green, acrylic), Sunil Kumar (Hidden anecdote, oil on canvas), Hafizuddin Babu (Bangladesh-1, acrylic), Biplob Datta (Mysterious woman, acrylic), Fatema Akhter (Silent friend, acrylic), Shishir Mallick (Deconstruction, acrylic), Dilruba Papia (Batoara, Oil on canvas) and others.

The exhibition ended on 9 November with a discussion programme on the topic of Role of Drawing in Education and Development of Children. Professor Shahidul Islam, a renowned educationist, was the Chief Guest at the programme chaired by Fazlul Bari, Editor of Shikkhalok. Artist Zahid Mustafa, Poet Shamset Tabrejee and Artist Shishir Mallick discussed the topic in details. Mahbub Ul Allam moderated the discussion.

Professor Shahidul Islam said at this discussion programme, "It is rightly reflected in the keynote paper by Alamgir that drawing plays an enormous role in the development of children. Throughout my life I have been saying the same thing that art and culture should be part of our education system for making us better human beings. But none in the power has listened to such talks."

The author is Executive Editor, Shikkhalok