‘Haunted’ house in F-9 park is now an art gallery, courtesy CDA
Zubair Qureshi
In Islamabad’s iconic F-9 Park, a deserted hut has been transformed into an art gallery, thanks to Chairman of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) Amir Ali Ahmed and his team.
The circular place is now illuminated with lights and its walls are decorated with artworks of prominent artists of the country. The visitors to the park will now enjoy the double delight of walking inside the park and along with the physical exertion they will have a touch of creativity whenever they visit the unique art gallery that has been named the Islamabad Art Gallery (IAG).
Chairman Amir Ali Ahmed and well-known artist and sculptor and former Director General of the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) Jamal Shah jointly inaugurated the IAG on Sunday.
In his remarks, Amir Ali Ahmed said he was happy to see the F-9 Park restored into a green and clean place where an increasing number of families and visitors visited particularly on weekends.
A year ago, one could not even think of visiting this place in the evening, he said, adding, but today, with the efforts of his team the park workers the place is now thronged with visitors. However, he said cities were not merely brick and mortars. A city needs cultural identity. I shall be happy when Islamabad becomes not only a beautiful country but also a culturally rich country.
The place that has been named the Islamabad Art Gallery has earlier been filmed in various movies as a haunted house but today it is an art gallery. There was also a proposal to open a restaurant at this place, but it was decided that the art gallery would be the excellent thing to be set up here, he said.
The CDA could only encourage the artists to keep the IAG functional but the main responsibility lay with the artists themselves, said Amir Ali.
An exhibition by Hunerkada was also inaugurated besides the opening of the gallery on the occasion. Jamal Shah hoped the IAG would be a success among the artists and people would also take interest in their artwork. The exhibition that started on Sunday would continue for 15 days. the artists whose works were put on display included Akram Dost, Aman Hashmi & Luis Fellipe, Akbar Ali, Amin Gulgee, Bshir Ahmed, Surriya Chaudhry, Dr Tabassum Shaheen, Farrah Mahmood, Faiza Khan, Hajra Mansoor, Jamal Shah, Kaleem Khan, Mansoor Rahi, Murad Khan, Nadir Jamil, Nusrat Ji, Naqash Raj, Saadat, Syed Mubarak Shah, Shabana Nazir and Sumera Gulzar.
