Top child artists rewarded at ComBank’s colourful ‘Arunalu Siththam’ awards event

Over 13,000 colourful works of art competed to select the best child artists who created the most imaginative drawings to be honoured and rewarded with cash prizes and certificates at the ‘Arunalu Siththam’ art competition conducted recently by the Commercial Bank of Ceylon.

Of these winners, the 12 young artists that topped four of the five age groups that competed in the competition received their prizes at a colourful ceremony hosted by the bank at the BMICH, the bank said in a media release.

The bank launched the ‘Arunalu Siththam Children’s Art Competition 2021’ – the second in the series – in October last year and invited children between the ages of 4-16 under five age categories to submit drawings that illustrate the themes of ‘Our lifestyle,’ (Junior category) and ‘Gifts of nature,’ (Senior category) before 25^th November 2021. The categories were Pre-school (ages 4-5), Primary (ages 6-7), Post Primary (ages 8-10), Junior (ages 11-13), and Senior (ages 14-16). The competition was open to any child, whether an account holder of the bank or not. However, in recognition of being an existing account holder, special cash prizes are to be awarded, doubling the prize.

The child artists that took the stage at the BMICH were the First, Second, and Third placed winners in the four older age groups. These winners were presented cash prizes of Rs. 100,000, Rs. 75,000, and Rs. 50,000 each, as per their placements.

Although not present at the event, the 25 youngest winning contestants in the Pre-school category will be awarded cash prizes of Rs. 10,000 each and certificates, and another 50 participants in this category will receive Merit Certificates. Additionally, 25 contestants in each of the other age groups will each receive cash prizes of Rs. 10,000 while another 50 participants in each group will receive Merit Certificates, the bank said.

The total of 359 winners including the top three in each category as well as the winners of Awards of Excellence and Merit Awards were selected from the entries that were submitted digitally via www.arunalusiththam.lk, but only the top winners were present at the awards event, so as to ensure safety in view of the prevailing situation.

The bank said all other winners will receive their certificates through the nearest Commercial Bank Branch and those that have won cash prizes will have their winnings credited to their respective ‘Arunalu’ accounts. A total of Rs. 2.5 million in cash prizes is to be distributed among the winners.

The panel of judges for the competition included Prof. Susiripala Malimboda, retired Dean of the University of the Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) who is also a member of the State Arts Council of Sri Lanka; Ms. Deepa Alahakoon, a Consultant Creative Director (Advertising) and visiting lecturer at the VPA; Lal Jayasekara, Senior Lecturer and the Head of Department of Printmaking at VPA; Sanjaya Seneviratne, professional artist and a graduate of VPA and Ms. Inoka Edirisinghe, art teacher at Royal College Wayamba who is also a graduate of VPA.

The awards ceremony was attended by Commercial Bank’s Group Chief Marketing Officer Hasrath Munasinghe, Deputy General Manager – Personal Banking, Delakshan Hettiarachchi and representatives of the senior management of the bank.

Above: Representatives of the corporate management of Commercial Bank, the judges and the top 12 child artists at the ‘Arunalu Siththam’ awards event at the BMICH.