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Exhibition
at Special Education Centre The students,
all male, range from the age of 18 to 52 and enjoy the companionship
only their classmates have the ability to give. "There is no
ideal age to join, and when they do join, they are here for life,"
says Ms. Anna Rebert, the coordinator of the Centre and member of
the Board of Management. "We function very much like a school.
The students come in about 8 a.m. and are here until 12:30, or until
their vans or families come to collect them." The work is
distributed amongst the many volunteers and the five permanent members
of staff. As there are only 25 students at any given time, each
student is given personalised attention in a carefully integrated
programme of basic schooling, speech therapy and occupational therapy.
These include lessons in carpentry, cooking and rattan weaving.
Their education
is not limited to schoolwork. "We visit their friends who are
unable to come to school on a daily basis. For example, one of the
students fell very ill during the last few years of his life and
we did our best to visit him as much as we possibly could. This
really helped him," Ms. Rebert said. The products
of their hard work will be exhibited at a sale held on November
30 at the Centre at 80/7, Layards Road, Colombo 5. Many items will
be on sale. "Greeting
cards made by the students for Christmas will be available,"
says Ms. Rebert enthusiastically. "There are also collections
of recycled stamps for all those stamp collectors out there."
All your Christmas gifts can also be purchased at the sale as there
is something for everyone. T-shirts emblazoned with daring prints,
dish towels, pot holders, art and craft items and woodwork products
such as stools and bookshelves, all produced during the year by
the students themselves with a little input from their teachers.
"This
year, lunches are being served from 12 noon to 2 p.m. so that the
event can be a longer and more enjoyable one. The food stall which
has been organised by the Parents' Group will serve an ideal blend
of edibles." For Chitranjan,
David, Roshan, Rajan, Dirk, Viren and the others, this year-end
sale is what they've been waiting for. It's the perfect time to
exhibit their work and help the Centre realise its dream of building
a hostel of their own. Captured
on film "I got
a box camera when I was about 18 years old. This is how I got interested
in photography. When you are young, you just click anything that
looks interesting, sometimes it is a beautifully lit pandal, sometimes
it is an animal." Mr. de. S.
Jayasinghe began his professional life as a photographer in 1952,
aged 21. Responding to a newspaper ad calling for medical photographers,
he was selected to serve the General Hospital, Colombo. "I
was required to take pictures of patients before and after operations
and sometimes of unusual medical cases such as deformities,"
he said. He also served in hospitals in Africa and England, for
over 25 years. The irony is
that Mr. de. S. Jayasinghe is more renowned internationally than
locally. Having membership in the Royal Photography Society based
in the United Kingdom, for over 45 years, he is now a complementary
member. He has received many trophies and certificates from countries
such as Zambia, Spain, Portugal, Australia, Germany, Brazil and
England. Image World,
his exhibition now on at the Art Gallery also features the work
of photographers from 23 invited countries. Mr. de. S.
Jayasinghe enjoys sharing his knowledge with interested individuals
and delivers lectures at The Green Forest Association. "I got
my education free, and so I want to give it back free," he
says. Image World will be open to the public at the National Art Gallery from 9.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. today. Watercolour
exhibition Cooray exploits
the medium of watercolours innovatively to present Sri Lanka's rural
life in a refreshing manner. The haunting natural beauty of the
village with its myriad vibrant ways of living and culture is central
to Cooray's paintings. His works cleverly capture the religious
sentiments of pilgrims and the serenity of Buddhist shrines. With
his subtle brush strokes he unravels the aesthetic mood and feeling
with great authenticity. Working with almost a forgotten medium,
Cooray brings to life several facets of rural life. His intensity
of expression permeates all his paintings. His previous
solo watercolour painting exhibitions were held at the National
Art Gallery, the Lionel Wendt Gallery (Perspectives of Life) and
at the Hermitage Gallery. He has also participated in several group
exhibitions. Cooray's paintings
adorn reputed institutions such as the President's House, the Hatton
National Bank, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the Embassy of
Sri Lanka in South Africa. He works as an illustrator and visualiser
for Phoenix O & M (Pvt) Limited. |
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