Students from Universiti Teknologi MARA and Malaysian Institute of Art had their horizons widened on the world of art and design when Ms. Kyukin SAIKI, calligraphy carving artist from Japan, generously shared her experience and expertise in the “Uchiwa Designing Workshop” held at the National Art Gallery on 25th November 2009.

This workshop, jointly organized by Embassy of Japan, Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur and National Art Gallery, incorporated a competition which gave students a hands-on opportunity to create their own designs of “Uchiwa”, a type of Japanese fan made of leaf and bamboo. With the theme “together”, students displayed their flare for design through the colorful fans created. Selecting the winners was no mean feat for the judges as the designs were brimming with individuality - the winning masterpieces were truly the crème de la crème.

Ms. SAIKI was greatly impressed by the lively expressions of the Malaysian students and praised them for having grasped the theme “together” so well in such a short period of time.

May these young budding Malaysian art students bring a touch of ingenuity to the Malaysian fine arts scene in the near future!