GRADUATES 2019: DIPLOMA PROGRAMME

We are pleased to present the final projects achieved by our very first group of graduates in Karachi, Pakistan. Seventeen students graduated from the Diploma Programme delivered by the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts at the VM Centre for Traditional Arts in 2019. By skillfully engaging with their local monuments and heritage in the creation of their artwork, this pioneering class has established a precedent for all future generations of VMCTA students.

Alefiya babrawala

Alefiya Babrawala’s illuminations are inspired by careful research in the archives and museums of Karachi. She studied original Qurans to better understand their techniques, and then painted four frontispieces of her own design.

Nasreen Sadiq

Troubled by the environmental impact of plastic on Pakistan, Nasreen Sadiq decided to make a set of hand-embroidered textile carrier bags for her final project, combining skills she learned from her mother with the geometry she learned in the Diploma Programme. She is working with local women to turn her prototypes into a product line that will bring work to the local community.

Sana Habib

Sana Habib travelled to interior Sindh to learn more about the indigo dyeing processes introduced in the Diploma Programme, seen here in her appliquéd indigo wall hanging. She plans to develop textiles products that will bring new business to the indigo farmers she met during her research.

Hira Kamil

Fascinated by the art of illumination, Hira Kamil applied geometry and biomorphic design to develop original painted compositions inspired by her study of monuments in Pakistan. Hira hopes to join the MA programme in London in September 2021.

Samrah Inam

Samrah Inam’s final project is a framed mirror with painted gesso panels based on the nomuments of Makli. Samrah was our youngest student in 2019. She was accepted into Karachi University’s art programme based on the strength of her work in the VMCTA Diploma Programme.

Maryam Cheema

Maryam Cheema worked with the Culture, Tourism & Antiquities Department of the Government of Sindh before she joined the Diploma Programme at VMCTA. For her final project, she developed a range of hand- painted ceramics inspired by tradition but with a contemporary feel. She plans to work with her fellow graduates to develop a line of high quality handmade products.

Amna Fraz

Amna Fraz is intensely interested in the materials of painting, learning to prepare many more colours than we taught in our programme! Her final project was an egg tempera tree of life painted on gesso using colours sourced entirely in Pakistan.

Quratulain Bashir

Quratulain Bashir’s monumental painting explores designs from Makli and reimagines them in a new architectural setting of her own composition.

Laila Premjee

Laila Premjee has an interior design business. Her work considers how geometry can be applied to objects in an architectural setting in the form of tables and light fixtures.

Fatimah Agha

Fatimah Agha ventured into ceramics for the first time in her final project. Inspired by the geometry of Pakistan’s monuments, she designed ceramic planters with traditional patterns and a contemporary palette. She hopes to develop a full range of designs that can be brought into production. Fatima also worked with a local tailor to transform textile samples into clothing prototypes.

Saman Ansari

Saman Ansari took inspiration from some of the famous domes of Pakistan and painted them on ceramic plates. Touches of gold lustre brought a new material that had not previously been used in hand painted ceramics in Pakistan. She has received several orders already, and plans to develop additional designs for her clients.

Dilshad Asif

Dilshad Asif’s attention to detail, love of geometry, and careful handiwork is evident in the arched ceramic panel he made for his final project. Dilshad is looking for opportunities to apply his new skills in an architectural context.

Kaneez Fatima

Kaneez Fatima is a sensitive colourist, painting large compositions inspired by the geometries of Pakistan’s monuments. Kaneez is eager to be involved in future projects, whether as a designer or as a teacher. Following the Diploma Programme, she has already begun to find success exhibiting and selling her work.

Mehrin Haseeb

Mehreen Haseeb’s folding screen is a prototype, produced with the help of a local carpenter according to her design, and featuring two panels of her own handiwork. Mehrin is investigating ways to take this design into production using woods indigenous to the region.

Khalifa Shujauddin

Khalifa Shujauddin is both a poet and a woodworker. He is keen to bring a contemporary feel to traditional crafts by blending techniques in surprising ways, as can be seen in this 10-sided table in ceramics and wood.

Liaqat Ali Joyo

Liaqat Ali Joyo painted a reconstruction of a damaged panel in Shah Jahan Mosque. His Diploma Programme portfolio was part of his application to university in Islamabad, where he began an art degree in January 2020.

Sana Imaad

Sana Imaad was fascinated by the flower designs on Wazir Khan mosque and other Mughal-era monuments. She analysed the underlying geometry of these designs and used them to develop paintings of her own compositions.