Govt Art College to be upgraded

Government Art College, Chittagong at Badsha Road. The photo was taken on Monday. Photo: STAR

Government Art College, Chittagong is being upgraded to Institute of Fine Arts merging with the Fine Arts department of Chittagong University (CU).
CU syndicate at a meeting on October 25 approved the long waited proposal to set up the institute under the university on the Art College premises at Chatteswari Road in the port city.
Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Abu Yusuf told The Daily Star that the demand for an independent institute for fine arts had been pending for long.
“The institute could not be established earlier due to some difficulties and opposition from a quarter. Now, I feel proud to see the long cherished dream going to be materialised and hope it will surely help expand the practice of fine art in this region,” Prof Yusuf said.
He said they have sent all the decisions and proposals of the syndicate to the education ministry and the University Grants Commission (UGS) in this regard.
The government has responded positively, he said, adding that the institute will function under CU and a university teacher will be its director.
He said the government will hand over the lands and infrastructure of the institute to the university through a gazette notification and the CU Fine Art Department will be shifted to the institute from the campus.
Art College in the port city had been limping with manifold problems since long and will get rid of the crises after establishing the institute.
Welcoming the initiative, Chittagong Charushilpi Sammilan Parishad Convener Ahmed Newaj said after establishing an independent institute the students will be able to concentrate on study fully. The students would now be able to engage themselves in creative works that they could not do so far as the CU campus is 22 kilometres off the city.
“A department and an institute are not same thing. In the institute the students would get huge scope for creative works in a congenial atmosphere,” he said.
CU Fine Arts Department Chairman Prof Jasim Uddin said establishing an institute was their dream for long and the university authorities came forward overcoming the problems that halted the initiative earlier.
Mohammad AK Fazlul Huq, acting principal of Fine Arts College, said the college is now facing serious shortage of teacher.
There are only 10 teachers against 30 posts to provide education to around 200 students under four disciplines at honours level. Of them, only five teachers are of related disciplines, he said, adding that the crisis will be solved if the institute is set up as early as possible.
The Fine Arts College was established in the picturesque site of city's Chatteshwary area in 1973 and it turned into a government college in 1984.
Sources said CU authorities at a syndicate meeting on September 23 in 1997 decided to upgrade the college into an institute merging Fine Arts Department with it.
The then government also issued a gazette notification in this regard on March 11 in 1999.
But, filing of a writ petition by a CU teacher delayed the process until the Supreme Court dismissed the petition and directed the authorities concerned to upgrade the college into Institute of Fine Arts on July 20 in 2002.
Besides, only a few days before the SC order reached it, the then BNP-Jamaat backed CU authorities at its 389th syndicate meeting on July 29 in 2002 cancelled its previous decision to establish the institute.