Art Rises for Kerala Auction Raises Rs 3.2 Cr for Flood Relief

Kochi, Jan 22: A first-ever international live contemporary art auction in Kerala saw all its works getting sold out and the proceeds of Rs 3.2 crore set to be donated to the state government’s rebuilding efforts in the aftermath of the natural calamity five months ago. 

Anish Kapoor / Untitled / 2018 / Canvas, resin and pigment

The auction, conducted by Mumbai-based Saffronart and the Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) last weekend, had no Buyer’s Premium — and comprised 42 artworks generously donated by leading Indian and international artists, gallerists and collectors. The amount from the Friday night event at the Grant Hyatt in Kochi is going to the Kerala Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund for the benefit of the people hit by the floods and landslides in August last year.

The sale was led by eminent artist Anish Kapoor’s Untitled, 2018, a vivid blue canvas- and-resin work that sold for Rs 1.3 crore.

The 2010-founded KBF noted that the Kerala government has been the principal supporter of the biennale which has its fourth edition on for 108 days till March 29. “We’re proud to have been able to bring together the artist community to rebuild Kerala,” said KBF president Bose Krishnamachari. “I’m also happy that along with the important collectors in India, a new generation of art collectors have come forward in Kerala.I hope that this will strengthen the ecosystem for art here.”

Art Rises for Kerala, the first-ever international live contemporary art auction in Kerala was held at Grand Hyatt, in Kochi, last weekend.

Saffronart said it had partnered with the KBF once again in solidarity with the people of Kerala. “We thank the art community for their generous support in both donating and bidding on works for this important cause,” said Saffronart CEO Dinesh Vazirani. “We hope that the funds raised through this auction, with artworks by some of India’s leading artists, will support the commendable rebuilding efforts initiated by the state government that are already underway.”

Sunil V, Secretary of the KBF, said the foundation thanks the artists who generously contributed to the cause. “We also want to thank Saffronart and Dinesh Vazirani for their partnership,” he added.

Art Rises for Kerala Auction Showcases Masterworks for Post-Flood Aid

A Preview Exhibition in Support of the Chief Minister's Relief Fund Opens to the Public

Kochi, Jan 4: Kochi Biennale Foundation has opened a preview exhibition for works that will be part of the Ark Rises for Kerala (ARK) relief auction on January 18, 2019. The auction, being held in collaboration with Mumbai-based auction house SaffronArt, is an effort to bring together the Indian and global art community to aid those affected by the disastrous Kerala floods in August of last year. All proceeds from the auction, the first of its kind to ever be held in Kerala, will be directed to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund, which is working to rebuild damaged infrastructure all over the state.

 

Preview of artworks that will be part of the Art Rises for Kerala relief auction held at Bastion Bungalow,

Renowned artists, Indian and international, along with individual collectors, have generously contributed a wide range of modern and contemporary works to go under the hammer. An exhibition of the works is being held starting from January 5th at Bastion Bungalow, a heritage property by the sea in Fort Kochi. The preview is a great opportunity for interested art viewers, in addition to viewing the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, to see works by master artists shown in Kerala for the first time.

Artists featured in the auction include significant figures from Indian art history, like Amrita Sher-Gil, as well as contemporary masters like Anish Kapoor, A Ramachandran, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Anju and Atul Dodiya, Dayanita Singh, Manisha Parekh, Madhvi and Manu Parekh, Velu Viswanathan, Madhusudhanan, Shilpa Gupta, and Mithu Sen. International artists include Francesco Clemente and Robert Montgomery.

 

Preview of artworks that will be part of the Art Rises for Kerala relief auction held at Bastion Bungalow,

Bose Krishnamachari, President of Kochi Biennale Foundation, remarked on Kochi Biennale Foundation's strong bond with artists fostered over the years. "Artists have shown great solidarity with our core values and ever-growing initiatives. The Art Rises for Kerala auction is a chance for the global art community to come together and stand with Kerala in its time of need. We are grateful and humbled by the warm support from the art community for our home state, and very proud to exhibit these works to a public audience."

Preview of artworks that will be part of the Art Rises for Kerala relief auction held at Bastion Bungalow,

Reciting tale and painting: Biennale hosts Gond art painting workshop

Kochi, Jan 4: As he sits before a circle of curious onlookers, Subhash Vyam recites a mythological tale his ancestors have passed down through generations as members of the Gond tribe. The students, mostly children, try to create images from the episode they just heard.

Giving colours with brush to folk stories is the essence of Gond art on which a workshop is on at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Vyam, into his middle age, is leading the three-day event at Fort Kochi’s Cabral Yard, a venue of the 108-day art festival.

The leafy locale has at its western side an ‘art room’, where a set of participants are busy making paint using natural pigments: red mitti (mud), turmeric and green plants. These are ingredients essential to Gond art that traces its history to ancient times and adivasis of central India. Vyam, along with his son Man Singh, also trains the students ways to make the paints.

Dikshitha V Sanoj, an upper-primary student with a local school, is fascinated by Vyam’s tale. “It is about a boy who fell in love with a fish,” she gushes, sharing her enthusiasm in making images of the gill-bearing creature.

“Well, hold your brush straight,” says Vyam to the children who are busy painting on paper. “It’s good to guide children with good degree of talent.”

On the first two days, Vyam recited the tales for the children. “On the third and final day, I am giving students a chance to recite stories themselves and paint,” he adds

Gond artist Subhash Vyam trains students on the central Indian tribal painting at a three-day workshop

The January 3-5 workshop is being organised by the Kochi Biennale Foundation as part of its program called ABC (Art By Children) that generally finds the participation by adults as well. Blaise Joseph, who heads the ABC programme, points out that Gond art is typically done on cloth, but the children at the workshop are being given paper because it is their familiar surface.

“Red stone, laterite stone, common turmeric, green leaves and the like goes into making of colours,” Blaise explains. “We have relied on local resources to get each of the material.”

  

Australian Pharan Dennis, who on his visit to Kochi and the Biennale, was among the early trainees at the workshop. “Quite a surprise…this indigenous style,” shrugs the visitor, who teaches art in a primary school Down Under.

Ganga Nair, a homemaker and mural artist, too tried her hand. “I am planning to teach this art to kids around my house,” she adds.

B V Suresh’s biennale work questions censorship by political parties

Kochi, Jan 4: Amid bright sunshine, the main venue of Kochi-Muziris Biennale has an indoor space that is dimly lit. Deliberately. That is at Aspinwall House’s choir godown segment, where the focus is on dark subjects.

It’s a thought-provoking work by B V Suresh against vigilance, mob violence and censorship. The Hyderabad-based artist raises concern about political parties stifling creativity and suppressing dissent.

Using common objects like cane and bamboo along with videos, middle-aged Suresh presents an experimental installation to explore distinct themes, it seeks to portray the current political context which the artist feels feeds off the hate that it generates.

Artist BV Suresh with his installation on display at
Aspinwall House, Fort Kochi 

“The work recreates the absurd theatre of contemporary politics,” says Suresh, a fine arts lecturer who had started as a painter. “Today, we see its episodes unfolding in the ruins of post-colonial dreams of nationhood.”

The biennale work, ‘Canes of Wrath’, aims to present a current dystopian context where liberal voices and great teachings are being manipulated. Or, worse, drowned by blind fury. The 58-year-old, who graduated from Royal College of Art in London, feels that marginalisation begins with the feeling of the art community becoming a major target of attack. This is being led by not only religious fundamentalists, but increasingly profit-driven forces across the world.

The installation is not only thought-provoking but catches viewers attention with the various operational mechanisms used by the artist. The battery-powered cane sticks continuously thumping the floor, the angry Hanuman video and the rotational movements of the broomstick are some of the elements that the artist has used in his installation that compels the viewers to look at the mechanics of the work.        

Suresh’s work features an albino peacock. To him, it represents society having been pushed to the edge of late. “The peacock, which is India’s national bird, is so colourful, you know. Here it comes in white,” points out the artist, who is also part of the Students’ Biennale this year as one of the Educators. “That is to show the country has lost its varied shades. Our diversity is being attacked. The body looks like a rough cut, like a bird that has undergone a post-mortem.”

Artworks by artist BV Suresh on display at Aspinwall House, Fort Kochi

Suresh, who teaches at University of Hyderabad, was born in Bangalore. His early years in the Karnataka capital were marked by a sense of alienation. Memories of his humble childhood lead the artist to identify with other groups relegated to the fringes.

“These days, artists are forced to do self-censorship. There is a rising threat to artistic freedom in our country,” he says. At the 108-day biennale, Suresh’s work hails the liberal voices and laments how words of wisdom are being tweaked to mislead vulnerable populations.

The artist’s work speaks of the minorities, the dispossessed, the displaced and the marginalised. “Some of the burnt bread loaves symbolise the burning of the Best Bakery in Baroda,” he notes, referring to the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat.

Artworks by artist BV Suresh on display at Aspinwall House, Fort Kochi

Courtesy: Kochi Biennale Foundation

Suresh gives lecture at Baroda’s Maharaja Sayajirao University, where the artist had exhibited a similar work. His students from the Gujarat institution are currently on a visit to the biennale. One among them is Narendra, a third-year student of painting. Suresh’s work at Baroda was blunt, the pupil notes. “But here, it seeks to converse with the viewers. It makes them think and analyse present-day politics,” Narendra says. “The work questions narration of history and the effects of mass-media images on society.”

Sue Williamson presents colonial history of both Cape Town and Kochi at the Biennale

The 77-year-old South African’s twin installation at Biennale profiles memory and identity formation; draws similarities in colonial history of the two cities

Kochi, Dec 13:  Septuagenarian Sue Williamson travelled all the way from South Africa to India to display two of her installations that shed light on the neglected histories of her country and draw parallels with the Kerala city hosting the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.

 

The 77-year-old artist’s ‘Messages from the Atlantic Passage’ at Aspinwall House is a large-scale installation based on accumulated records (from both sides of the Atlantic) on 300 years of slavery from the 16th century. On the face of it, the work has five fishing-nets, filled to the brim with glass-bottles containing traces of earth and suspended from the ceiling. Come closer and you’ll find that each of the 2,000 or so bottles is inscribed with the name of a slave.

 

According to the England-born artist who migrated to Cape Town in 1948, the work was inspired by specific voyages that were taken by slave ships from the west coast of Africa to the Americas in the 19th century. “The idea of the bottles and nets is based on how people were treated like very cheap commodities,” she points out.

 

Each of the five nets hang atop a wooden base that is inscribed with the details of the journey beneath the itinerary with chilling lists of headcount at departure and arrival. “Well, ‘Messages from the Atlantic Passage’ is sourced from shipping records of Africans who were removed from the countries of their birth. They were forcibly boarded onto ships which crossed the Atlantic to the Americas as part of the colonial slave trade,” she says. “The work consists of five ‘tanks’ representing as many specific voyages. Each bottle is a hand engraved with the name and details of one person on that voyage.”

 

Sue’s second work at the Biennale is recent. ‘One Hundred and Nineteen Deeds of Sale’ is a result of her visit to Kochi last year, when she was struck by the similarities in colonial history of Kochi and Cape Town. The artist found transaction records from the Cape Town Deeds Office that account the 17th-century enslavement of Indians who were bought to Africa by the Dutch East India Company. 

 

Kochi-Muziris Biennale curator Anita Dube notes that Sue’s work remembers the forgotten connection between the histories of her home city and Kochi. “She sourced linen clothes traditionally worn by the working class in India,” Dube says. “As for the hand, it gives what little information is present in the archives about the slaves: the name given to them by the master, gender, age and place of birth. Most of these slaves from Kerala were from Malabar region.”

 

Sue symbolises the oppression by having dipped the garments in muddy waters around the Cape Town Castle, a site of the enslavement. “It shows the hard labour the displaced people endured,” adds the artist, who was born in Hampshire’s Litchfield in 1941 and studied art at New York and Cape Town.

Through the Biennale here till March 29 next year, the garments will be washed at a public local laundry and hung to dry in the sea-facing Aspinwall House, the main venue of the 108-day contemporary art festival

Sue Williamson presents colonial history of both Cape Town and Kochi at the Biennale

The 77-year-old South African’s twin installation at Biennale profiles memory and identity formation; draws similarities in colonial history of the two cities

Kochi, Dec 13:  Septuagenarian Sue Williamson travelled all the way from South Africa to India to display two of her installations that shed light on the neglected histories of her country and draw parallels with the Kerala city hosting the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.

 

The 77-year-old artist’s ‘Messages from the Atlantic Passage’ at Aspinwall House is a large-scale installation based on accumulated records (from both sides of the Atlantic) on 300 years of slavery from the 16th century. On the face of it, the work has five fishing-nets, filled to the brim with glass-bottles containing traces of earth and suspended from the ceiling. Come closer and you’ll find that each of the 2,000 or so bottles is inscribed with the name of a slave.

 

According to the England-born artist who migrated to Cape Town in 1948, the work was inspired by specific voyages that were taken by slave ships from the west coast of Africa to the Americas in the 19th century. “The idea of the bottles and nets is based on how people were treated like very cheap commodities,” she points out.

 

Each of the five nets hang atop a wooden base that is inscribed with the details of the journey beneath the itinerary with chilling lists of headcount at departure and arrival. “Well, ‘Messages from the Atlantic Passage’ is sourced from shipping records of Africans who were removed from the countries of their birth. They were forcibly boarded onto ships which crossed the Atlantic to the Americas as part of the colonial slave trade,” she says. “The work consists of five ‘tanks’ representing as many specific voyages. Each bottle is a hand engraved with the name and details of one person on that voyage.”

 

Sue’s second work at the Biennale is recent. ‘One Hundred and Nineteen Deeds of Sale’ is a result of her visit to Kochi last year, when she was struck by the similarities in colonial history of Kochi and Cape Town. The artist found transaction records from the Cape Town Deeds Office that account the 17th-century enslavement of Indians who were bought to Africa by the Dutch East India Company. 

 

Kochi-Muziris Biennale curator Anita Dube notes that Sue’s work remembers the forgotten connection between the histories of her home city and Kochi. “She sourced linen clothes traditionally worn by the working class in India,” Dube says. “As for the hand, it gives what little information is present in the archives about the slaves: the name given to them by the master, gender, age and place of birth. Most of these slaves from Kerala were from Malabar region.”

 

Sue symbolises the oppression by having dipped the garments in muddy waters around the Cape Town Castle, a site of the enslavement. “It shows the hard labour the displaced people endured,” adds the artist, who was born in Hampshire’s Litchfield in 1941 and studied art at New York and Cape Town.

Through the Biennale here till March 29 next year, the garments will be washed at a public local laundry and hung to dry in the sea-facing Aspinwall House, the main venue of the 108-day contemporary art festival

The Walls of Kochi come Alive through Street Art

Kochi, Dec 4: If wall-paintings are the most effective way to announce the approach of the subcontinent’s biggest contemporary art festival, then the murals coming up in different parts of the city best exemplify the spirit of the Kochi Biennale Foundation, which is organising the Kochi-Muziris Biennale beginning next week.

The Maharashtrian artist, Parag Sonarghare, painting the picture of ‘Eyes’ that banks on realism on the walls near Fadi Auditorium on Bazaar road.

Providing an unexpected visual treat, huge and colourful street murals are getting ready in the run-up to the fourth edition of the Biennale beginning on December 12.

These works of art are part of an ongoing graffiti project of the Foundation’s Pepper House Residency. The two-month endeavour gives street artists an opportunity to engage the public through their art, as well as bring often discarded spaces to notice.

 Nepal based artist Kiran painting ‘Hands’ on the walls of the Warehouse opposite to Mohammed Ali Warehouse in Mattancherry as part of the Graffiti Project.

Eight young graffiti artists from across the world are researching and creating street art in public spaces all over the neighbourhoods of Fort Kochi and Mattancherry. Massive wall paintings have been part of the Foundation’s efforts since the Biennale’s first edition in 2012, but this is the first time they have formally invited graffiti artists for the assignment.

The project began on October 25 and will conclude on December 20, a week after the start of Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018, curated by artist Anita Dube. While most of the art will be complete by the Biennale’s opening, early visitors might be able to see the talented artists in action.

The paintings are in response to the artists’ experience of the surrounding areas, according to Foundation president Bose Krishnamachari, who co-curated the first Biennale.

According to the Foundation’s Programmes Coordinator Nibedita Mishra, the graffiti projects will enhance the city’s engagement with the fourth Biennale that features 94 artist-projects. “These paintings on the walls of the Biennale city bring Kochi-ites closer to the world of art. They will not just be visually attractive, but thought-provoking as well,” she added. “Some of the works will fit well with the theme of the upcoming Biennale as well.”

The graffiti artists-in-residence are Shanto Antony, Nikhil K C, Kiran Maharajan, Luanna Senna, Tito Senna, Parag Sonarghare and Do and Khatra (Siddharth & Nikunj).

Portuguese artists Luanna Senna and Tito Senna working with colourful geometric patterns on the walls of the Mohammed Ali Warehouse.

Shanto, who is Kerala-based, is painting on the western wall of Santa Cruz School, while Nikhil is working at the ESI Hospital Wall and M K Mattancherry Wall.  

Kiran, from Nepal, is painting ‘Hands’ on the walls of the Warehouse opposite to Mohammed Ali Warehouse in Mattancherry.

Portuguese artists Luanna and Tito are working with colourful geometric patterns on the walls of the Mohammed Ali Warehouse.

Parag Sonarghare, a Maharashtrian, is painting on the wall near Fadi Auditorium on Bazaar road and on the wall of T K Krishnan Nair Shop also on Bazaar road. His painting includes the picture of ‘Eyes’ that banks on realism. 

Do and Khatra, comprising Gujaratis Siddharth and Nikunj, are painting on the walls of Fort Kochi Police Quarters.

Kerala based artist, Nikhil KC, painting at the M K Mattancherry Wall as well as at the ESI Hospital Wall. 

Biennale’s unwavering bond with Kochi’s Cabral Yard

Kochi, Dec 03:  Among its dozen-odd venues the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) has had on an average in each of its three editions by far, there is none like Cabral Yard that has changed contours and even function at the subcontinent’s biggest contemporary art festival which is readying for the next show.

A particularly verdant rectangular plot of 1.6 acres in Fort Kochi, it had featured pivotal installations in the first two chapters of KMB (2012 and ’14), while the 2016 edition saw its plot house a pavilion that hosted performing arts programmes that ran alongside the biennale. This time, starting December 12, Cabral Yard will house a multi-functional structure that doubles as a ‘knowledge laboratory’ as envisioned by KMB 2018 curator Anita Dube.

The Kochi_Muziris Biennale 2018 Pavilion under construction at Cabral Yard, Fort Kochi.

With its undulations, this plot is situated by the bend of the road that runs alongside Aspinwall House, invariably the main KMB venue. The yard got its name after Pedro Álvares Cabral, the first Portuguese sailor who reached Kochi way back in 1500 AD. The Cochin king accorded a warm welcome to Cabral the sailor along with his fleet (after facing hostility up in Malabar’s Calicut). So much so, the Portuguese subsequently got the consent to set up a base in Kochi, where they launched a spice factory.

Five centuries later, a similar kind of bond has existed between Cabral Yard and KMB. For the record, the property was acquired in 1904 by Aspinwall & Company. The 1867-founded commercial enterprise built there a hydraulic baling press for coir yarn.

Today, Cabral Yard, as a property of real-estate major DLF, is in the midst of yet another construction. The upcoming Biennale Pavilion will be the venue for Biennale lectures and workshops besides letting the visitors perform extempore in a free-spirited way. It will also be the place for the KBF’s novel project called ABC, that is Art By Children, which aims to groom younger talents. KMB 2018 has 10 venues.

The pavilion for the first and second KMB was built in Aspinwall House. Into the third, the curator, Sudarshan Shetty, thought it important for its visitors to not gather thickly in just one venue but get spread across venues instead. Result: Cabral Yard became the plot for the pavilion.

The Kochi Biennale Foundation, which organises the KMB, finds the pavilion an important space. “It is where people gather and participate/view a lot of activities. Cabral Yard fits well into such demands,” says Bose Krishnamachari, founder-president of the KBF. “It holds talks, screens films, display exhibits, holds educational and entertainment activities and much more.”

This time, the Pavilion will see people hanging around, sitting and conversing in a freer way than usual, according to Bose, also a co-curator of the first KMB. It will have two food courts: a community cafe by the Kerala government’s women-empowering Kudumbasree volunteers and by Edible Archives that is essentially an infra project. Besides, Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn will be holding a six-hour daily workshop for 30 days inside the Cabral Yard.

At the inaugural 2012 KMB, Cabral Yard was the site for the works of two artists: Mumbaikar Shetty and US-based Afghan-origin Amanullah Mojadidi. In the next edition, Valsan Koorma Kolleri transformed the terrain with his work ‘How Goes the Enemy’.

In 2016, the plot accommodated two artworks (by artists Katrina Neiburga, Andris Eglitis, Sophie Dejode and Bertrand Lacombe) besides the Pavilion (built by Tony Joseph).

Overall, Cabral Yard depicts the varied quests of people over the centuries. In the medieval times, it was a plot for explorers on a conquest and then a commercial venture (courtesy English trader John H Aspinwall), while in the KMB decade the land brims with the spirit of artistic experimentation.

‘उत्तराधिकार 2018’ का आगाज़

        रज़ा फाउंडेशन एवं इंडिया इंटरनेशनल सेंटर की ओर से ‘उत्तराधिकार 2018’ के तृतीय संस्करण के पहले दिन इंडिया इंटरनेशनल सेंटर के सी.डी. देशमुख सभागार में उत्तराधिकार का आयोजन किया गया। कार्यक्रम का औपचारिक स्वागत देते हुए रज़ा फाउंडेशन के प्रबंध न्यासी और हिंदी के कवि श्री अशोक वाजपेयी ने कार्यक्रम के बारे में बताते हुए सबका स्वागत किया।उत्तराधिकार भारतीय शास्त्रीय परम्परा के शिष्यों का रज़ा समारोह है। इस कार्यक्रम का मुख्य उद्देश्य शास्त्रीय कलाओं में गुरु-शिष्य-परम्परा के महत्त्व और जरूरत का रेखांकन है। रज़ा फाउंडेशन इस परम्परा पर एकाग्र दो वार्षिक समारोह करता है : उत्तराधिकार और महिमा। महिमा अगली जनवरी में होगा जिसमें वरिष्ठ शास्त्रीय कलाकार अपने गुरुओं से प्राप्त सीख और विरासत प्रस्तुत करेंगे।

 

आज की पहली प्रस्तुति चर्चित सरोद वादक अयान अली बंगश  ने दिया। अयान सेनिया बंगश परम्परा के सातवीं पीढ़ी से सम्बद्ध हैं। वे प्रसिद्ध सरोद वादक उस्ताद अमजद अली खान के शिष्य और पुत्र हैं। अयान बहुत ही कम उम्र से सरोद की शिक्षा अपने पिता एवं गुरु से लेनी आरम्भ कर दी थी। अयान ने अपनी पहली एकल प्रस्तुति आठ वर्ष की उम्र में दी थी। तब से लेकर आज तक वे कई एकल प्रस्तुतियां और अपने पिता जी के साथ युगल प्रस्तुतियां दे चुके हैं। अयान ने सरोद में अपने अभिनव प्रयोगों एवं विविधताओं के माध्यम से सरोद संगीत के क्षेत्र में एक नया कीर्तिमान रचा है।

आज की इस प्रस्तुति में श्री अयान अली बंगश का साथ बनारस घराने के युवा तबला वादक श्री शुभ महाराजने दिया। श्री शुभ महाराज प्रसिद्ध तबला वादक पद्म विभूषण पंडित किशन महाराज के नाती हैं और चर्चित कत्थक नर्तक पंडित विजय शंकर के पुत्र हैं। शुभ बचपन से ही तबला की शिक्षा ले रहे हैं। वे संगीत के महत्वपूर्ण मचों पर संगत कर चुके हैं।

इस शाम की पहली प्रस्तुति में श्री अयान अली बंगश पारंपरिक राग और ताल से (जो कि पद्म विभूषण उस्ताद अमजद अली खान की रचनात्मक निर्मिती है) आरम्भ किया, उन्होंने अपनी पहली प्रस्तुति राग ललिता गौरी में दिया। सबसे पहले उन्होंने अलाप,जोड़ और झाला से राग का स्वरूप खड़ा किया जो चौताल और द्रुत तीन ताल में निबद्ध था। उन्होंने अपनी प्रस्तुति का समापन राग गौड़ मल्हार से किया।

अगली प्रस्तुति गुरु शोवना नारायण की शिष्या सुश्री शिवानी वर्मा का कत्थक नृत्य था।पेशे से वकील हुए भी सुश्री शिवानी वर्मा का कत्थक प्रेम इन्हें कत्थक की और खीच लाया। सुश्री शिवानी वर्मा ने सबसे पहले गुरु मनीष गंगानी और बाद में गुरु तीरथ अजमानी से कत्थक की शिक्षा प्राप्त की है। शिवानी वर्मा ने कत्थक गुरु पद्म विभूषण पंडित बिरजू महाराज, गुरु शोभना नारायण, गुरु सास्वती सेन, गुरु सरोजा वैद्यनाथन एवं सुश्री शर्मिष्ठा मुखर्जी, मुजफ्फर अली, आमिर विद्युन सिंह, आशा कोचर, अनु आहूजा, डॉ. मोहिनी गिरि और शालिनी विग वाधवा के साथ कार्य किया है। हम्पी उत्सव से लेकर लक्मे फैशन वीक जैसे पारम्परिक और गैर-पारम्परिक मंचों पर भी इन्होने कत्थक की प्रस्तुतियां दी हैं। अभी हाल में चंपारण से बापू, निधि वन, ये शहर नहीं महफ़िल है, अग्निवेश द्रौपदी और दृश्भा शीर्षक इनका काम लोगों ने काफी पसंद किया है।

सुश्री शिवानी वर्मा के साथ आज संगत पर पंडित ज्वाला प्रसाद (जो की संगीत नाटक अकादमी सम्मान से सम्मानित चर्चित गायक और संगीतकार हैं ) ने संगीत रचना और निर्देशन का काम किया और गायन एवं हारमोनियम पर साथ दिया। तबला पर उस्ताद बिस्मिलाह खान युवा पुरस्कार से सम्मानित श्री योगेश गंगानी ने संगत किया। श्री योगेश गंगानी कत्थक के गंगानी घराने से ताल्लुक रखते हैं। पखावज और बोल पढ़ंत पर श्री महावीर गंगानी जी ने साथ दिया। सारंगी पर किराना घराने से सम्बन्ध रखने वाले उस्ताद आसिफ अली खान के पुत्र और शिष्य श्री अहसान अलीने साथ दिया।सितार पर उस्ताद शाहिद परवेज के शिष्य और इटावा घराने से संबद्ध श्री सलीम जी ने साथ दिया। तकनीक एवं प्रकाश संयोजन श्री मनीष हलधर का था। श्री मनीष शर्मिष्ठा मुखर्जी, अमल अल्लाना, सोनम कालरा, मुजफ्फर अली के साथ भी काम कर चुके हैं। सुश्री शिवानी वर्मा का परिधान संयोजन हाउस ऑफ़ कोटवारा के सौजन्य से था। प्रस्तुति से पूर्व सुश्री शिवानी वर्मा ने अपने गुरु शोवना नारायण को गुलदस्ता देकर उनको सम्मानित किया। सुश्री शिवानी वर्मा की यह प्रस्तुति ‘लीला’ पर केन्द्रित थी। जीवन से लेकर मृत्यु तक का समस्त जगत व्यव्हार लीला के केंद्र में है। जीवन अनवरत चलते रहने का नाम है। सुश्री वर्मा अपनी प्रस्तुति ‘लीला’ का आरम्भ कामदेव के आह्वान एवं वंदना से किया।‘लीला’ की यह प्रस्तुति तीन ताल में निबद्ध थी।

रज़ा फाउंडेशन का अगला कार्यक्रम 4 अक्टूबर को सावनी मुद्गल का गायन एवं हिमांशु श्रीवास्तव का भरतनाट्यम तथा 5 अक्टूबर को डॉ. सरिता पाठक यजुर्वेदी का गायन और अरुषि मुद्गल का ओड़िसी का आयोजन इण्डिया इंटरनेशनल सेंटर के सी.डी. देशमुख सभागार में होना है। 8 अक्टूबर को शाम 6 : 15 वजे से इण्डिया इंटरनेशनल सेंटर के सी.डी. देशमुख सभागार में गाँधी जयंती के 150 वें वर्ष में रज़ा फाउंडेशन द्वारा शुरू किये जा रहे गाँधी मैटर्स का उद्घाटन व्याख्यान प्रसिद्ध समाजशास्त्री प्रो. आशीष नंदी का गाँधी एज अ डिसेंटर विषय पर होना है। रज़ा फाउंडेशन का मासिक कार्यक्रम आरम्भ 11 का आयोजन 12 अक्टूबर को अलियांस फ्रांसिस सभागार में 6 बजे से होना है, जिसमें पेलवा नाइक का शास्त्रीय गायन और आर भार्गवी का कत्थक की प्रस्तुति है। तथा अक्टूबर 13 को शाम 6 बजे त्रिवेणी कला संगम में सिद्धार्थ मिश्र का शास्त्रीय गायन एवं सुहैल भान का भरतनाट्यम का आयोजन है। रज़ा फाउंडेशन आरम्भ का विद्यालय श्रृंखला का आयोजन करता है। इस बार का आयोजन 11 अक्टूबर को मदर्स इंटरनेशनल स्कूल में तथा 12 अक्टूबर को सर्वोदय कन्या विद्यालय में होना है। वहीदा अहमद द्वारा संयोजित ब्लर्ड पैरामीटर्स शीर्षक से उत्तर-पूर्व के कलाकारों के कलाओं का प्रदर्शन इंडिया इंटरनेशनल सेंटर के कमला देवी काम्प्लेक्स के गैलरी में  27 अक्टूबर 12 बजे से 10 नवम्बर तक होना है। 29 अक्टूबर को कुमार गंधर्व स्मृति व्याख्यानमाला में प्रो. सुमंगला दामोदरन का हिस्ट्री, मेमोरी एंड इमोशन इन अंडरस्टैंडिंग म्यूजिक एस पॉलिटिक्स विषय पर इंडिया हैबिटाट सेंटर के गुलमोहर सभागार में शाम साढ़े छह बजे से होना है।