Earlier this year, in May, a three-month community art project kicked off in the Valley, where 18 artists in residency eventually travelled to Sipapokhare village in Sindhulpalchowk, a settlement hard-hit by the 2015 earthquakes. The residency will now come to a close, on Tuesday, with an exhibition that features artwork created by the resident artists and participants.

The participating resident artists, who hailed from Finland, India, Bangladesh and Nepal, lived both in Kathmandu and in the village with the local Dalit families and conducted back-to-back workshops that helped the community heal through art and expression, said the organisers.

“Our aim was to create a community art project that supported the community of Sipapokhare in rebuilding after the earthquake. The rebuilding we were looking at was not physical, instead, as artists we wanted to contribute in the healing process,” says Ashmina Ranjit, founder of LASANAA, the arts collective which initiated the project alongside NexUs Culture Nepal in collaboration with University of Arts, Helsinki, Finland.

“That being said, it was not a one-way process where the artists helped the locals. It was an interactive, intensive journey where the artists and the community members together questioned their own preconceptions and values revolving around creation of art,” Ranjit added.

The scheduled exhibition will also coincide with the launch of the book Rebuilding Recaptured—handprinted by Nepali artists—which details the project and includes artwork by each individual artist.

The show will continue till September 4.