A group of IBA students lead by Areebah Akhlaque started an initiative by the name of Fitoor, which is Pakistan’s first online platform to showcase the artwork from all over Pakistan. The web is created for art lovers and artists. It is a multivendor e-commerce platform (www.fitoor.com.pk) where artists can showcase and sell their artwork, and art-lovers can browse and purchase art.

Fitoor is not just a buying and selling site for art. Still, it is an initiative to promote art in Pakistan and make it easily accessible and available to the masses. Our vision is to create a space where local artists find support and encouragement to explore their creativity and talent and showcase their art to appreciative individuals. The result was such that within just a few months of its existence, Fitoor received tremendous support and appreciation and has now over 300 artists onboard from all across the country specializing in acrylics, oils, pastels, calligraphy, landscapes, pop art etc. Furthermore, 80% of our artists are women, and a lot of these women used to make art as a hobby but now using the Fitoor platform they can earn their livelihood through their talent and skill.

This has been our aim all along; to create value for art in Pakistan and then make it a viable profession to pursue.

Our plans are to find and reach out to artists in low access and awareness areas of Pakistan and showcase their talents to the masses using our platform. We are also planning to work with children from underprivileged schools and integrate their creativity into our platform.

Shortly we also plan to collaborate with trained artists and provide online art workshops and lessons to amateur artists who want to learn more.