Thirty lanterns painted by students from the Association for Persons with Special Needs (APSN) Chaoyang School lit up the United Overseas Bank (UOB) Art Gallery in celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival. The lantern-painting session was held as part of UOB’s annual Mid-Autumn Festival workshop.

During the session, 30 young artists and volunteers from UOB were taught acrylic painting techniques by 1992 UOB Painting of the Year winner Soh Chee Hui. The participants then applied their newly acquired skill onto traditional fabric lanterns.

“The Mid-Autumn Festival is an occasion where we spend time bonding with people who are dear to us,” says Soh. “This year’s festival is especially heart-warming for me as I wanted to help inspire and fire up the artistic passions of these children. I hope that this will lead them to pursue developing their creative talents and exploring different art forms.”

The students also brightened up the financial district when they proudly displayed their colourful lanterns during a walk along the Singapore River to commemorate the festival. Jetno Tsai, a volunteer from UOB Personal Financial Services, commented, “I was touched by the glowing smiles on the children’s faces as they held up their lanterns to the public. I could see their confidence grow with the cheers and encouragement from passers-by. They were also thrilled about having their artwork exhibited at the UOB Art Gallery for their friends and families to admire their lanterns.”

The exhibition by APSN Chaoyang School students was showing last week at the UOB Art Gallery. It ran alongside ‘Joy²’, an exhibition by professional artist and 2015 UOB Painting of the Year winner Aaron Gan. The ‘Joy²’ art exhibition is a continuation of ‘Joy’, Gan’s first solo exhibition at the UOB Art Gallery, featuring birds in his signature watercolor painting style that serve as a reminder to stay rooted and be grateful to the people who have helped him, and will run till 4 November 2016.

UOB’s Mid-Autumn Festival lantern painting workshop is part of the UOB Heartbeat Volunteer programme to give back to the community in the areas of art, education and children. Since January 2016, the bank has organized 10 art education workshops for more than 120 children from underprivileged backgrounds or who have special needs. It aims to enable these children to express themselves more fully through art and also to expose the medium to those who may not have an opportunity to experience it.

*For more information, please visit www.uobpoy.com

This article was first published in Art Republik.