By Dimithri Wijesinghe
Artra Magazine, a monthly contemporary art magazine exploring visual, performance, applied, written, and culinary art, established in 2012, launched an initiative throughout the curfew titled, “Artist Challenge”, where they encouraged readers to draw their attention to local artists who inspire them.
With an active presence on social media, Artra was able to connect with multiple local artists as their readers tagged them in the many works available online, allowing them to create a massive network of local artists.
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Azara Jaleel[/caption]
Artra Magazine Founder and Editor Azara Jaleel shared that they received submissions of nearly 3,000 artists, who then began to interact with the magazine. This allowed Azara and her team to see what artists were creating during these times of crisis, and how they were expressing themselves.
As a result of these interactions, Artra Magazine has launched their new initiative – an opportunity for artists to be a part of a showcase curated by Artra, voicing artists’ responses to Covid-19 from all over the island.
Artists who are 18 years of age or above, and who were born and are living in Sri Lanka are encouraged to share their response to, or reflections on, the global pandemic, Covid-19.
Criterion:

- Work of art needs to be original and authentic
- Works of art submitted need to be in the visual medium (sketch/painting/drawing/photography/illustration/digital art/doodle)
- When artwork is submitted, the artist needs to submit their artist profile, concept note to the piece (max. 500 words), and place of birth (in English/Sinhala/Tamil)
- Application need to be submitted via editorial@artra.lk by 25 May