Ahmedabad, Aug 21 (IANS) Young and budding artists and those over 60 years of age who exhibit their works outside Gujarat would be helped through a fellowship scheme, Minister of Sports, Youth and Cultural Activities Fakirbhai Vaghela said here Thursday.He was speaking at a ceremony at which he conferred the Gujarat Lalit Kala Gaurav Puruskar on 18 artists, photographers and sculptors. The award covers the years 2000-01 to 2007-08.

Jairam Patel, Ramesh Pandya, Kishore Vala, Janak Patel, Suresh Sheth, Jayant Parikh, Amit Ambalal and Kanti Rana were honoured in the artists category, while Shailesh Rawal, Somabhai Mistry, Pushpvadan Katri, Parmanand Dalwadi, Suresh Parekh, Sanat Sodan and Girish Katrithose received the award in the photography category.

Sculptors Himmat Shah, Jayanti Naik and Kumdben Patel were also awarded.

Vaghela presented each of them with a shawl, a cash prize, a memento and a certificate.

Earlier the minister opened an exhibition showcasing the works of the 18 winners at the Ravishankar Rawal Kala Bhawan here that will be open to the public till Aug 28.

Speaking on the occassion, Vaghela said Gujarat’s artists had brought laurels to the state at the national level.

He said Vivek Desai of Ahmedabad had bagged the first prize in the black & white and colour categories at the National Photo Contest organized by the union information & broadcasting ministry’s Photo Division to mark 60 years of Indian Independence.