By A Staff Reporter
Lalitpur, Feb. 19: Society of Fine Art Journalists (SOFAJ-Nepal) has decorated five journalists with ‘Narayan Bahadur Singh Memorial Fine Arts Journalism Award’ and ‘SOFAJ Laxmi Maya Kumale Memorial Fine Arts Award’ at a function organised in Lalitpur on Thursday.
KK Karmacharya, Chancellor of Nepal Academy of Fine Arts, presented letters of appreciation and cash prize of Rs. 11,111 to each journalist.
Art journalists, including Deepak Shrestha (Deepak Bihin) and Sirju Bajracharya were awarded Narayan Bahadur Singh Memorial Fine Arts Journalism Award, Hemant Gautam and Deepak Pariyar were presented SOFAJ Laxmi Maya Kumale Memorial Fine Arts Award, and Radha Poudel (Ajabi Poudel) was honoured with SOFAJ Fine Arts Journalism Award.
Chancellor Karmacharya said that media and journalism could play a vital role in promoting art.
Emphasising the importance of media and journalism, he said that respecting art journalists would go a long way in promoting and developing art.
“The contribution of journalism to the promotion and evaluation of art is incomparable,” said Karmacharya.
Keshav Khanal, president of SOFAJ, said that journalists, who have been writing in art for a long time were awarded.
Journalists have a crucial role to play in the advancement of art, and there must be a large group of journalists writing on fine arts, said Ramesh Khanal, Department Head of Nepal Fine Arts Academy.
Meanwhile, SOFAJ’s 6th annual general meeting held on Thursday reelected Keshav Khanal of Gorkhapatra as its chairperson, forming an 11-member working committee.