Aao Rang Karyn

Despite having a rich history of the arts, Pakistan has been fighting the constant policing on the arts which is to stifle its voice. However, to pursue the arts as a career is a tentative decision to be made for majority of students, even today. These are the ones know that they have the potential to become an incredible artist, but are not enlightened by the field’s vastness. Another causative factor of being hesitant to choose art as a profession can be the lack of access to the quality education and the resources which are required in learning art.

Being aware of the factors affecting the art field; let it be the lack of schools, art galleries and etc., Ali Syed and his friends decided to take an initiative in not only promoting art but also teaching and spreading awareness about this fabulous field.

These young and creative brains got in touch with BOL News to share their idea, vision and mission. They have titled their project Aao Rang Karyn, which is a non-profit organization that works for promoting the arts by helping underprivileged who want to pursue their career in the arts.

“My art teacher was serving as a mathematics professor while I was in school. By this you can assess how little art has been valued.” Syed told BOL.

“A summer camp was arranged by a non-governmental organization named RABTT in 2012 when I was studying in a government school. They have taught us many things, including arts. Since always, I enjoyed arts. I was motivated and committed to starting something like this in 2017, when the RABTT ceased to work.” He further added, “Initially the team had three people including me, two of us were fashion designers and one was a textile designer. Now, it has expanded and individuals are here from other different colleges with common understanding in the arts.”

Starting from the scratch doesn’t come easy and when it’s about something non-profitable, it takes time to settle, to make the name prominent and then raising funds is another challenge. Syed shared the difficulties he had faced while starting his project. “You receive a lot of refusals, not every time you succeed. People do listen to the idea and appreciate but what is next? It’s important to continue to try. When we approached several people for funds, we faced numerous rejections, but we did not stop and kept trying. Our team has always been goal driven. At the beginning our university professors supported us and provided funds, then we contacted many other organizations but not all were supportive; some assisted us and some were just concerned about our social media reach – asking saying that our Facebook page doesn’t have a hefty numbers of likes so they won’t be getting any benefit from promoting us.”

While talking about the market reach he said, “Our aim has never been of personal fame but only to promote arts and to help those who are passionate to learn but aren’t able to do so. We are still working on our marketing, and it would be helpful if we get any support from the government, news channels or any other organization.”

Creating one’s own brand and establishing it is always difficult and that makes one humble.  “Our first workshop was with Alif Laila Workbook Society, it was a great start. After that when we approached different schools they gave us a warm welcome. From the beginning till today, we could have enrolled 300 children who got an opportunity to polish their skills and have got good knowledge about the field and profession.”

Syed is ambitious and doesn’t think of halting the project for a moment. Even amid COVID-19. He waited for better days to come so his team and he could resume.

“We are currently based in Lahore, however, we are thinking about spreading to other cities. Starting in Lahore was easier on some levels since we knew the city and its nature. Spreading our wings mean further difficulties as we don’t know all cities. We will have to look at other possibilities in terms of spreading our branches.”

Being a Computer Science student, he had a longing for the arts. He took a major shift and switched from his field to the arts. And now being one of the inspiring youngsters he is aiming at strengthening the weakened corners of the field thus providing a platform Aao Rang Karyn which is to the youth of Pakistan.