When Sangeeta Thapa organized the exhibition 'Khulla Dhoka' in March 2006, Nepal's future looked bleak.

The war was at its peak, 50 Nepalis were being killed every week. Pro-democracy protests were gathering strength on the streets. Yet, the exhibition in a symbolic fashion tried to show that there was hope, that doors (and minds) needed to be opened.

As it turned out, by April that year the street protests forced king Gyanendra to restore parliament and a ceasefire went into effect. Nepal's future suddenly looked bright again.

Thapa has now taken the exhibition to London as part of an effort to raise money for a proposed Kathmandu Arts Centre, a vibrant world-class centre to support the creativity of future Nepali artists. Khulla Dhoka 2 was opened in London on 28 October and ended on 14 November.

"The absence of quality museums, experimental spaces and studios has hindered the development of contemporary expression and it is to make up for this loss that we are trying to set up the Kathmandu Arts Centre," Thapa told Nepali Times.

WAY OUT JUNE 2008 / PATRICK HUGHES

The exhibition in London had works by 11 prominent Nepali artists (Durga Baral, Sujan Chitrakar, Kiran Manandhar, Manuj Babu Mishra, Ashmina Ranjit, Seema Shah, Shahi Shah, Uma Shankar Shah, Romio Shrestha, Sunil Sigdel and Ragini Updahya-Grela) and international artists, including Catherine Goodman, Maggi Hambling, Patrick Hughes, Tim Hyman and Richard Long. All 108 artists donated work which were for sale at ?150 to ?50,000.

The Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker Bowles, also lead a fundraising dog walk at London's Green Park on
8 November to raise money for the Kathmandu Arts Centre as well as the Kathmandu Animal Treatment (KAT) that rescues street dogs. The dogs were all garlanded as if on Kukur Tihar.

www.kathmanduarts.org