चित्र बनाकर नियुक्तियों की मांग

Young Kerala Artists Set To Paint A New Direction For State Tourism

Thiruvanthapuram/New Delhi, Oct 1: Six acclaimed artists from Kerala have been selected for theme branding the new Hop-on-Hop-off boats and Water Taxis in the backwaters of Kochi to be launched by the state tourism department in mid-October.

P S Jalaja, K P Reji, Jaya P S, Leon K L, Saju Kunhan and Sanam C M are the artists chosen for the theme branding after Kerala Tourism invited entries for the new state-of-the-art transport service in the Kochi backwaters. P S Jalaja and K P Reji were participants in the first Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2012-13.

As part of its innovative water-based tourism facilities, the Kerala Tourism Infrastructure Ltd., under the state's Department of Tourism, will launch the Hop-on Hop-off boat service and Water Taxis, for the first time in India, in the backwaters of Kochi and in the Spice Route project of Muziris.

There will be three Hop-on-Hop-off boats each in the Kochi backwaters and the Muziris region; while three water taxis will ply in Kochi, there will be two on the Muziris route.

With the designs for the Kochi backwaters service decided, the Tourism department is now looking to finalise the theme branding for Muziris services. The date for posting of entries based on the specific theme of Spice Route for branding of the three Hop-on Hop-off boats and two Water taxis for Muziris has been extended to October 15.

The entries from artists, between 18 and 45 years, befitting the Spice Route theme can be uploaded on the entry page of the Kerala Tourism website (www.keralatourism.org). The terms and conditions for submitting the entries are available on the website.

 “We are proud to use the rich contemporary artistic talent in the state to highlight our world class destinations,” said Kerala Tourism Minister Shri A P Anilkumar after a high-level committee selected the six top artists. 

“In order to support and showcase young talented artists from Kerala at a breakthrough stage, we had called for entries to use their signature works to theme brand the new service,” he added.

The first set of entries were evaluated by a committee comprising Shri K. Jayakumar, former Chief Secretary and Vice Chancellor of Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malyalam University; Shri K.A. Francis, Chairman, Kerala Lalita Kala Academy; and Shri. P I Sheik Pareeth, Director, Kerala Tourism. A total of 47 entries had been received by the committee.

"The initiative is a fruitful combination of the state's artistic talent and state-of-the-art transport experience," said Kerala Tourism Secretary Shri Suman Billa. "The artistic expression is the best way to highlight the history and heritage of Muziris from the ancient times of the Spice Route and also the exquisiteness of the backwaters of Kochi.”

Kerala Tourism Director Shri P I Sheik Pareeth said: "Both the Hop-on-Hop-off boat service and Water Taxis and the theme branding of them by our finest artists are an affirmation of the tourism department's commitment to offer the best experience to our visitors from around the world."

The selected paintings will be developed into full size vinyl stickers to wrap up the boat’s exteriors.  

नए कलाकारों को मिलेगा मंच

Naiduniya : 30/09/2014

 

100-plus artistes dance, sing, drum at grand finale of SAARC fest

New Delhi, Sep 29: More than a 100 artistes from India and abroad performed together to tastefully coordinated choreography that unveiled a grand range of aesthetics, ringing down curtains on the SAARC Cultural Festival on Traditional Dances of South Asia in the capital.

Clad in their ethnic costumes, dancers, instrumentalists and musicians, totalling 105 from SAARC member-states, brought out the regional individuality along with the spirit of togetherness as the three-day event held at the Sangeet Natak Akademi here concluded on Sunday evening highlighting the scope of cross-border cultural cooperation.

Colombo-based SAARC Cultural Centre (SCC), which organised the Sep 26-28 extravaganza featuring stage shows and demonstration of performing arts, besides a symposium on intangible cultural heritage (ICH) and a photo exhibition by SNA, hailed the get-together as a giant stride in furthering contact between the people of the eight-nation grouping: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

“Each SAARC nation has its own cultural uniqueness that can match with the eminence of any other country of the world,” said SSC Director GLW Samarasinghe at the valedictory function that saw a confluence of art forms ranging from Sri Lanka’s Kandy dance to Afghanistan’s Mili Atan songs to Bottle Dance of hilly Bangladesh, besides India’s Chhau, Manipuri and Sattriya from the east alongside Kathakali and chenda ensemble from the south.

All the participating SAARC artistes were given away certificates by SNA Secretary Helen Acharya at the concluding function, which also felicitated Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India Prof. Sudharshan Seneviratne, SNA vice-chairperson Shanta Serbjeet Singh and Kathak danseuse Manjushree Chatterjee.

A 100-minute cultural show of six SAARC nations followed, culminating in a brief and breezy spectacle which brought all the artistes on to a single stage. The 20-minute item received loud cheers from the packed audience at Meghdoot gallery of Rabindra Bhavan that houses the 1952-established SNA.

On Saturday, an international seminar held as part of the festival stressed the need for SAARC nations owning a shared database on the ICH of South Asia so as to locate the region’s cultural components, pool them onto a platform and facilitate their exchange between people and transmission down generations.

The day-long seminar on ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Context of SAARC’ was addressed by Art Scholar Dr Sudha Gopalakrishnan and moderated by SAARC Culture Centre Director Dr Sanjay Garg. It also saw demonstrations of eastern India’s Seraikella Chhau (Shashadhar Acharya) and followed by Sri Lankan dances besides Koodiyattam presentation (Sangeeth Chakyar) from Kerala.

Community participation is one key to such an initiative, but it would require an atmosphere where the youth is encouraged to carry on hereditary knowledge and skills, speakers at the workshop in the capital on ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Context of SAARC’ pointed out.

The festival began on Friday evening with the staging of traditional dances of SAARC nations. The two-hour programmes saw the presentation of Mili Atan and Karsak recitals from Afghanistan, bottle dance and Jhoom from Bangaldesh, welcome songs of Bhutan, Manjushree dance and Puja of Nepal and Kandyan dance from Sri Lanka, besides Chhau dance (Seraikella and Purulia varieties), Dhol Cholam (Manipur) and Kathakali (Kerala). Fresh items from their traditional repertoire found stage depiction on Sunday.

The festival, which followed the Third Meeting of SAARC Ministers of Culture here last week, also hosted a photo exhibition which essayed the shared history of artistic cooperation between the South Asian nations in the past five decades.

The three-day photo exhibition at SNA lawns mounted169 photos that threw light on select cultural events that the national-level institution has hosted since 1958 till recently — all of them exclusively featuring the SAARC countries. 

‘Indian museums need to better IT use to match up worker potential’

New Delhi, Sep 29: Museums in India largely lack in robust infrastructure of information technology (IT) even as many of them have employees who are highly imaginative, going by an intensive workshop in the national capital.

Most senior officials of museums in the country do not accord deserving importance to promoting themselves well through the cyber world but the upcoming generation can alter the situation for good, according to two British trainers who led a workshop in National Museum (NM) here.

One thing that museums require urgently is specialists in IT methodology, Carolyn Royston and Charlotte Sexton inferred last weekend after the end of the two-day on ‘How To Create A Digital Engagement Programme In Your Museum’ organised by NM in association with British Council and National Museum Institute (NMI).

“Formulation of a digital strategy and their effective implementation are vital in the running of museums in the new age,” pointed out Ms Royston, who currently heads the digital transformation strand at the Historical Royal Palaces in the UK. “They should be more into social media, including Twitter and Facebook.”

The September 25-26 workshop was attended by 40-plus delegates who included independent curators, consultants and heritage professionals associated with museums and galleries from north and west India.

Participants at the Digital Engagement workshop at the National Museum

Ms Sexton, who specialises in transforming the way cultural organisations use digital technologies to reach, engage and inspire their audiences, said the NM workshop has proven that India has a “digitally minded” young generation associated with museology. “We gave them (participants) various exercises that tested their potential as giving visitors in-gallery digital experience. Most of the results were excellent,” she added.

The delegates, too, were excited. “We always knew we should do this and that. Only now could we learn how we can,” said Shweta Jain of Sanskriti Museum.

Added Tariq Pasha of International Museum of Toilets: “I now realise that much of what we did in the digital sphere till date did not have the intended global connect. The NM sessions helped us a lot.”

Rosy Gupta of Rashtrapati Bhavan Museum termed the sessions “really stimulating”.

The participants also included members from National Museum, NMI, Crafts Museum, Thar Museum, Google Cultural Institute, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Aga Khan Development Network, Bid Art Bull Pvt Ltd, University of Delhi, Lalit Kala Akademi, Ambedkar University, Lucknow Musuem, National Gallery of Modern Art, Akar Prakar, Tasveer and Mehrangarh Museum Trust besides freelancers.