ANF History

Founder and director of ANF Ysbrand Brouwers have had a love of nature since early childhood.  He began to collect wildlife art quite early and his knowledge of the subject grew with his collection.  He made contact with many artists all over the world and invited a number to participate in his first exhibition on The Alerdinck estate in the Netherlands in 1978.  It was followed by other exhibitions of a similar nature under the umbrella of ‘Wildlife Art Promotions’.

With the inspirations, he got from famous Wildlife Artists, Ysbrand decided to promote the idea of art serving the cause of nature conservation by using his existing network of artists. So in 1990 he invited a number of artists to gather on Schiermonnikoog. This time it was his own initiatives and also support   from some of the magazines and a few other individuals who contributed financially, and he also used some of his own resources.  This article of artwork was published in the book and the late Prince Bernard of the Netherlands added an introduction. The display of nature artwork, participation in exhibition and his initiatives were supported by important organizations like WWF Netherlands etc. So he generated an idea in his mind that similar gatherings of artists could have major potential for supporting nature conservation world wide and that became the basic idea and further a creation of Artists for Nature Foundation which was founded in December of 1990.

ANF India  and it’s History:
It was in the year  2001, in Holland, when Vivek Mohan Sharma has come into contact with ANF. Vivek has been acting in the Bandhavgarh  as a teacher, information officer and guide. With the aid of Vivek and his family ANF India was officially founded and registered with Agra as place of business. In the subsequent years the ANF  India organized various drawing competitions on different schools to search art capability  amongst the children  and to give  them  an idea what the tiger means for their environment.

Vivek gets lasting help
ANF invited Vivek to Holland in 2001 in order to arrange  a number of talks and interviews on tiger protection and nature education. ANF also arranged to help Vivek to acquire a good second hand single lens reflex camera and lenses. While excursions he often has opportunities to take pictures of unique meetings with tigers and other wildlife  in Badhavgarh. With his amicable qualities & social capability, he has been able to sell his most interesting photographs regularly to foreign magazines and publishers.
Every year ANF Team arrives in India to visit wildlife reserves , heritage sites and cultural  places which are  hosted and guided by Vivek in India. The capital earn from these trips goes to Tiger saving projects and for functioning of ANF  India Office. 

Setting up of Eco lodge & Environmental Education Centre
ANF Team last  visited  India, in January 2005, It was  first time , the team  evaluated the  work done by ANF India and a special mention by  Vivek  to start his own lodge together with his family was agreed . This unit of the lodge has to be a unique one in the region in the category of ecological sustainability.
In addition to  being a host and taking care of paying guests, Vivek  would like to spend an important deal of his time in an Open Sky Environmental Education Centre  to impart  environmental education to the  schoolchildren, as well as their parents and adults in the surrounding villages.