56 Years to State School Art Festival

14 Jan 2013
Malappuram

Every journey begins with a small step. The State School Art Festival took the baby step 56 years ago, with 400 students and 18 events. For the Malappuram festival, scheduled to begin on Monday, the corresponding figures will be around 10,000 participants and 232 events. The growth has indeed been phenomenal.

C.S. Venkiteswaran, the then Director of Public Instruction, who is dubbed the father of the festival, may not have imagined that his baby would scale such heights when he conceived and organized the first festival at Government Girls’ High School, Ernakulam, in 1957. The idea of an arts festival for Kerala’s students took shape in his mind after he attended an all-India inter-university arts festival in New Delhi.

There have been many changes in the conduct of the festival over the years, like restricting the competition only to students from high school onwards, bringing Sanskrit and Arabic festivals under the same roof and including and omitting different events. One thing remains unchanged, though: the sheer joy the festival always brings.

Source-http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/kerala/56-years-of-history-visits-malappuram/article4304758.ece

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