The first-ever ‘Bangladesh Art and Culture Week 2016’ began in Bangkok on Tuesday evening.

Bangladesh ambassador to Thailand Saida Muna Tasneem inaugurated the event at Thailand’s most prestigious art gallery, the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, said a press release on Wednesday.

“We have arranged the Bangladesh Art and Culture Week to showcase Bangladesh’s art and culture to the Thai people with a view to portraying a progressive, liberal and culturally vibrant image of Bangladesh and of its people to Thailand, its elites and its common people,” Ambassador Tasneem said.

This is the first Bangladesh art and culture week in Bangladesh’s 44 years of diplomatic relations with Thailand. Foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali has issued a good will message on the occasion.

Meanwhile, the art works produced in the joint art camp by nine eminent Bangladesh artists and nine senior Thai artists will be inaugurated in an art exhibition on 29 March at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre by Thailand Culture Minister Vira Rajpoj Chanarat.

The ‘Art and Culture Week’ will also include a colorful cultural programme by prominent music and dance artists from Bangladesh at the prestigious Royal Wangna Theatre in Bangkok on 26 March, on the occasion of the 45th Independence Day of Bangladesh.