Art in the industrial age: how artists respond to Pakistan’s humanitarian crisis. From the article: 

This view of artists and expression of thoughts about nature underlies the sensitive role of art and artists in society and the way art creates imagination capability in culture and society. This imaginative sense of art further calls for the special role accorded to art and artists, especially in times of societal and economic chaos and crisis….

In the exhibition event curated at the [University of Sindh] Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, we brought together twenty-one posters that engaged with and showcased the concept of the humanitarian public role of artists, both national and international, in times of humanitarian crisis during the 2022 flood disasters in Pakistan. The idea of designing and curating the Poster Art exhibition to highlight the public humanitarian role of artists in times of 2022 flood disaster in Pakistan aimed to introduce and engage with the power of art and the creative artistic modes of pedagogy in the production of knowledge….

Before exhibition, we had superficial understanding that artists are isolated humans and don’t appear in the public role in society. When we started working with online archival story material for our poster art exhibition we came to know about the active presence and vibrant public role of artists through their contributions and donations for the victim families during devastating flood-induced displacement and crisis….

The poster art exhibition included the display of a story of Pakistani film star Mehwish Hayat in which she is seen to voice for the humanitarian support of flood victims beyond religious and national boundaries. In the story. Mehwish Hayat points towards the fellow artists and stars in neighboring India and calls for humanitarian action beyond national borders. Her statement reminded us that the humanitarian cause should not suffer the narrow national politics….

Anthropology of art could be an effective and meaningful pedagogical tool to engage with creative and critical knowledge production. The use of creative teaching and learning methods such as the theme-based poster art exhibition introduced by our course teacher Dr. Rafique Wassan provides ample opportunity for the development of effective and meaningful education and learning.