Last year at Kalaghoda Art Festival, some former students of Sir JJ Institute of Applied Art met after almost four decades. They later formed a Whatsapp group 'Aamhi JJkar' and within a short while, most of the members agreed that they should make a plan to meet.
This gave way to, 'Aamhi JJkar 2019' an art exhibition by former students from batches of 1973-1980.
Alumni like Arun Tanawde, Vijay Nezawala, Anil Mithbavkar, Vilas Thakare co-ordinated for the event. They got in touch with batch-mates and invited them to participate in this unique reunion. Bharti Sarvankar also joined this team, they met Dean Santosh Kshirsagar and got permission, booked the assembly hall for the exhibition and finally announced the date for "AAMHI JJkar 2019" to be 13-15 November. Invitations were sent out to friends and family to make this reunion a memorable one,
For the exhibit, 22 artists came together and put up their best, select works including paintings, photographs, illustrations, sculpture and more.
Neelam Mohile, who went to the US and worked with New York Times, Time and Life magazines as part of their computer graphics team, flew down especially to be a part of this reunion. She displayed the work she did when she was a student at this esteemed institute.
Vilas Ambre, a wildlife photographer put up breathtaking photographs of birds showcasing his love for nature.
Smeeta and Vilas Thakare's work highlighted the danger of substance abuse and the impact of environmental degradation.
Photographer Naresh Shriodkar, a regular at Kumbh Mela, who now lives in Goa exhibited images of sadhus. He said this was an opportunity to meet friends after four decades.
Jayant Pithadia, who worked with a leading English weekly THE WEEK, put up some of his memorable covers and page designs from the magazine along with a digital illustration of Amitabh Bachchan which was part of an exhibition '75 frame' a tribute to the superstar by photojournalist Pradeep Chandra.
Some former professors too made it for the exhibition. They said that they liked the idea and said that the works should be documented digitally and should be made a yearly event.
After the first day. Raza Modak thanked the Dean Santosh Kshirsagar who supported the group in their endeavour to organise the exhibit, that enabled former students to share their creativity in a common space.