Launched in 2014, PhotoSparks is a weekly feature from YourStory, with photographs that celebrate the spirit of creativity and innovation. In the earlier 1,020 posts, we featured an art festival, cartoon gallery. world music festival, telecom expo, millets fair, climate change expo, wildlife conference, startup festival, Diwali rangoli, and jazz festival.

Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA) in New Delhi recently hosted its 65th National Exhibition of Art. It showcased over 270 artworks from around the country, selected by a jury from 6,175 submissions.

Twenty artists were also conferred with the Lalit Kala Akademi Awards. The artists include Pooja Rajpoot, Praveen Kumar, Pritam Madhukar Deuskar, Rajendra Prasad, Ramesh Vithal Thorat, Raviram Ramakrishnan, and Sanjay Kumar.

Such exhibitions and awards help transform artistic talent into livelihoods, creative businesses, tourism, and international recognition. By connecting artists with audiences, buyers, institutions, and markets, they strengthen the creative economy while preserving a country’s cultural identity.

Exhibitions provide artists with platforms to showcase, promote and sell their work. They connect creators with the broader ecosystem of collectors, galleries, curators, cultural institutions and potential investors, thus creating opportunities for income generation and professional growth.

In the case of national exhibitions in India, opportunities are also created to showcase traditional crafts, indigenous knowledge, and contemporary artistic practices. Cultural assets thus go beyond elements of nostalgia into sources of sustainable economic value.

Art competitions in turn encourage excellence, experimentation and creative risk-taking. When conducted annually, they identify emerging talent, provide visibility to underrepresented artists, and create pathways to grants and residencies, as shown in LKA's activities and centres across India.

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