Kehkashan

The Untold Edition — what a project huh?

It all started with a vague idea. Then it strung out into collaborations and a lot of backend work. It took a lot of deciding WHO I want to work with and for what reason, which meant turning down some influential people who had designs that didn’t quite fit the generosity that was an unspoken part of this project. It tumbled into one event and then another and then another. And every event was a positive feedback loop, a learning process, a growing of my organizational, professional and collaborative skills to combine sponsors to artists to orchestrating an event without ever losing sight of my ultimate goal which these my two new Instagram hashtags convey succinctly: #ArtIsGenerous #ArtIsCollaboration

Using art to change Karachi, to change lives, to bring color and joy was always a part of what I do, when I worked with The Garage School or The Orange Tree Foundation it was always about what I can bring to the table and never about what I could take away from it. But The Untold Edition was a challenge because it required a balance between being fascinating and remarkable enough to attract the community to participate, without losing that simplicity, that meaningfulness, that generosity which others label naive that makes unadulterated humanitarian work so cathartic.

And I did encounter this hurdle. People loved joining in on fun, people disliked being put out of their comfort zone to toil away for a good cause.

Social media was the piece of the puzzle that linked the two things. Social media could be curated to present an idea as fascinating, it could reach so many people, it could be the potential start to a buzz of conversations. So, as event after event unfolded, I tried to keep up with blogging about it on social media. At the culmination of Unit 1 two things happened:

1. The positive feedback gave me a burst of confidence and I was ready to try something daring
2. My constant puttering at social media finally taught me a thing or two and people perked up to take notice

Enter, the finale.

The final (I say final by which I mean the parts of The Untold Edition which were in the MA project proposal, The Untold Edition itself will, of course, never end! 😀 ) projects of The Untold Edition were:

1. An art workshop with NGO Kiran Foundation which works with abused women and children in a location of Karachi most people fear to even speak of, Lyaari.
2. A tour of Karachi, bringing bloggers and artists of all kinds in a spectacular collaboration to see the city and create art

And because of the learning from the previous events, and the interest I was generating via social media, some very interesting collaborators came forward and I think I capped 2018 with what was honestly my best event ever.

More details in the upcoming blogposts!