Unilever announces the international art project 2008

Now in its eighth year, the Unilever International Schools Art Project encourages young people from around the world to create a painting, a sculpture or even a small installation on a given theme. To date, 125,000 young artists from 48 countries around the world including Colombia, China, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, Zimbabwe, USA and the UK have created works of art.Over 200 Schools from Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar will be participating this year.

The Art Project has been a Unilever activity for many years and the Corporate Affairs department has since 2006 organised workshops to promote art education, provide an experience-sharing platform to art teachers and help develop their skills. Building on Unilever’s mission and objective of adding vitality to life and value to art education, Unilever will be airing on television its ‘Art Show’ for children and teachers from October 18^th.

The Unilever Art Project has been supported by Wall’s for the past two years. Based on their young target profile Surf, Lifebuoy, Energile and Blue Band have all come on board this year to support the project. In an innovative departure from the past all TV programmes will be produced and aired on the hugely popular Wikkid channel so as to reach out acrossPakistanto children of all ages.

Over the next few months children from around the country will be studying and creating pieces of modern art as part of the 2008/9 Unilever International Schools Art Project. One young artist will then be selected to visit London to represent Pakistan, to enjoy his or her art work being displayed amongst the work of other young artists, from across the globe at a celebratory event at the Tate Modern.

Since its conception in 2001, the theme of the project has been linked to the installation created for The Unilever Series of large scale contemporary art commissions at Tate Modern. This year’s theme Spaces and Places will be linked to the ninth annual commission of The Unilever Series by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, which opened in London on 14, October 2008.

Artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster said; “I am very pleased that Unilever runs the Unilever International Schools Art Project alongside its sponsorship of The Unilever Series as a way of encouraging students to engage with art. This year’s theme of ‘Spaces and Places’ will enable students to explore and illustrate ideas that have been at the basis of my own work.  It will be interesting to see how the theme will be interpreted by young audiences from diverse cultural backgrounds and I very much look forward to seeing the works produced.”

Ehsan Malik, Chairman of Unilever Pakistan said: “Unilever is incredibly proud of what has been achieved through the Unilever International Schools Art Project over the last seven years. This initiative demonstrates our commitment to encouraging creativity and adding vitality to life, and illustrates our mission to develop strong relationships with our local community. I look forward to seeing how the children of Pakistan engage with this year’s theme.”

The Unilever International Schools Art Project reflects Unilever’s commitment to vitality, creativity, art, education and environmental responsibility. It has been devised to link with The UnileverSeries.

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’scommission at Tate Modern, London, is the ninth in The Unilever Series.