Start-up giving voice to artists

M Aamir Khan

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 10

In a place where youth do not find many platforms to give vent to their creativity, a start-up has come as a breath of fresh air for the Valley-based artists and writers.

Started by a BTech student, Aqif Majid (23), in 2016, PhantomThoughts — an online magazine has provided a platform to artists and writers to display their works and get feedback too. The magazine now gets around two lakh hits every month and its Facebook page has got over 40,000 likes.

“In 2016, I launched my start-up ‘The Blue Canvas’ and we first started phantomthoughts.com to provide a platform to artists and writers after I realised that youth did not get many opportunities to exhibit their creative side.

“Prior to its launch, we conducted an extensive programme for a year where our team (of four youth) visited schools and colleges and encouraged the students to showcase their creative talents,” said Aqif.

“Now, PhantomThoughts website displays works of over 500 artists and writers and it gets over two lakh hits every month. Our Facebook page has got nearly 42,000 likes. Earlier, only Valley-based artists and writers shared their work but now artists from other states are also sharing content on the website due to its vast reach,” he said.

Alongside the online magazine, ‘The Blue Canvas’ conducted several programmes in educational institutions of the Valley to hone local talent.

“We found that the children and youth were not being encouraged to express themselves creatively. Therefore, our group did several events like a weeklong interschool talent festival — ‘School of The Year’ — last year where hundreds of students took part in painting, cartooning, postermaking, calligraphy, vocals, instrumental, poetry, debate, mimicry and skit competitions,” said Aqif.

He said other events organised by ‘The Blue Canvas’ included a youth summit ‘Talk for Change’, besides ‘Writers Quest’ — the Valley’s biggest online writing competition.

“The idea behind such events was to encourage the Valley youngsters to give vent to their creative side. We have plans of doing more such events, besides hosting Kashmir’s biggest event ‘Eminence Awards’ to recognise and honour artists, sportspersons and unsung heroes,” he said.