(VNF) - An exhibition entitled Son Luc (Viridity Peak), featuring artworks by Vietnamese artists and disadvantaged ethnic children, kicked off at the Fine Arts and Photography Exhibition Centre (29 Hang Bai Street, Hanoi) on October 21^st.

Visitors to the exhibition on the opening day.

Artworks by over 30 Vietnamese artists participating in the fourth season of the Mountain Star Charity (MSC) project and paintings on linen created by ethnic children in Tung Vai, Dong Ha and Can Ty villages, Quan Ba district, Ha Giang province are on display at the exhibition.

The project aims to support the disadvantaged ethnic children in Vietnam by art education and offer a new breath of life to Ha Giang province’s linen products by combining local typical features with modern arts.

MSC project is initiated by Taiwanese postgraduate of Vietnamese Studies at Hanoi National University, Kuo Yen Wei, and jointly implemented by the Hanoi College of Art as well as Vietnamese associations of contemporary arts, such as Beef Shank Studio, Son Ta and Black, along with other volunteers from Japan, Germany and China living and studying in Vietnam.

Paintings on local linen fabrics created by students of Ban Thang branch of Tung Vai elementary school.

The idea for the project came to Wei in 2013, when he travelled to Ha Giang to research the culture in the remote mountainous area.

Wei, who is also an art curator, and his fellow travellers decided to develop a fine art teaching programme that would encourage the children to expose their natural personality through art.

According to artist Nguyen Truong Linh, a representative of the project, MSC aims at preserving and promoting local cultural values of the ethnic minorities, enhancing social elements in Vietnam’s contemporary arts and promoting Vietnamese arts.

This year, the fourth MSC project continues in poor villages of Ha Giang's Quan Ba district with the participation of 30 contemporary Vietnamese artists.

Linen products decorated by ethnic children at the exhibition.

Painter Luong Xuan Doan, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Fine Arts Association, said: “Striding into its fourth season, the project has yet again created new beauteousness, empowering young contemporary artists on their road to enlightenment by living, painting and awakening nature, together with children of distant mountain regions of Quan Ba, Dong Van, Meo Vac, Hoang Su Phi of Ha Giang province and Co To island of Quang Ninh province.”

“Using acrylic paint, natural dye and bee wax on local traditional hand-crafted textiles, girls and boys let their brushes go free. The peculiar patterns of shrubs and greens accentuate luscious nature, rejuventing the old-fashioned haml fabrics," he added.

Since its official launch in 2014, the project focuses on teaching arts to over 600 underprivileged children, aged from six to ten, across Vietnam’s mountainous and remote areas in Ha Giang and Quang Ninh provinces.

MSC project has also contributed to bettering the environment of local schools by decorating them with mural paintings, presenting the schools with teaching tools, as well as providing gifts and scholarships to disadvantaged students.

Ethnic and urban children draw together on a piece of linen fabric.

An exhibition featuring works by artists and children who are part of the project is held yearly at the Fine Arts and Photography Exhibition Centre at the end of the season, before being brought to Taiwan (China).

Before Viridity Peak, the project had organised three exhibitions showcasing 106 artworks in Kaohsiung (Taiwan, China).

The money raised from painting and product sales will be donated to Mountain Star fund for forthcoming projects to help impoverished children from minority ethnic groups in Vietnam.

The event will last until October 28^th./.

Minh Chau