A charity art exhibition drives home the idea that our lives are inextricably linked to the land around us.
FRAGMENTED and a bit of a mish-mash” is probably not what you would want to hear about an art exhibition your company puts on, but that’s how World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia trustee Angela Hijjas describes the early years of Art for Nature. Initiated in 1997, Art for Nature is an annual charity event organised by WWF-Malaysia to raise awareness about conservation issues, and at the same time provide a platform for artists to develop their talent and showcase their work. “When we first started out, we didn’t have a theme,” explains Angela. “The concept of Art for Nature then was very simple: we told the artists to send us work that we could sell. We did that for a few years, but it didn’t really work as an art exhibition. Although it did raise modest amounts of money, it had no identity or capacity on the arts calendar. It was just another fund-raising event,” she says. Since then, though, Art for Nature has grown in leaps and bounds, and has, over the years, successfully found its footing – as well as earned a respectable place for itself on the local arts calendar. Artists invited to participate in the exhibition are required to submit new artwork. This has resulted in art collectors identifying Art for Nature as a place to glean preliminary ideas of an artist’s future works, says Angela. As far as fund-raising goes, amounts raised by Art for Nature has more than doubled in the last four years, hitting a record RM297,220 last year.
It is no wonder, then, that WWF-Malaysia calls it one of its signature events.