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The agenda and activity is artistic. The dissemination of art, taking creative ideas to art lovers and artists of the city, initiate more cultural activity in the city, set trends and make new policies to give art its due. The new chairman of the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi (CLKA) Diwan Manna, is all set to bring about change, one that’ll not just be on paper, but for all to see. “Fresh ideas, perspectives and orientation, for both the people and the city’s young artists are what we’re looking at. Right now, for most things, as far as art and culture is concerned we have to turn to Delhi and Mumbai and we wish to change that,’’ the celebrated photographer is raring to go and is enjoying the arty activity. More allocation of budgets for art councils says Diwan, is the need of the hour, for we overlook the importance of art in people’s lives and also the fact that it can pay back even economically. “Anxiety, road rage, stress, depression...in my opinion art and culture can prove to be a solution for all this and more and all that is required to make people more aware is a little effort by the art fraternity and the government,’’ Diwan lists out the absorbing events that have been planned for this and the next year with multi-disciplinary approach to art being the focus.
The effort here is to expose people to the best in the respective fields, be it music, photography, painting, art history, conservation, poetry. For starters, it’s a lecture on ‘Why Art’ by renowned Hindi poet and art critic Ashok Vajpeyi on September 5 at the Government Museum. An interesting concept to take the ideas further is a display and sale of greeting cards, T-Shirts, book marks et al by the CLKA, “these will carry the works of various city artists and people can pay to pick these creative ideas. No freebies here, so that it’s not devalued,’’ explains Diwan. To ensure that local artists get national and international exposure, the Akademi is planning a National Camp, which will involve artists like Anjolie Ela Menon, Jatin Das, Arpana Kaur, Paramjit Singh, Govind Nihalani, to name a few. In October, the camera crazy can look forward to attend a workshop by none other than Raghu Rai. The people for the workshop (serious photographers) will be chosen by Rai, and half a day will be reserved for media lensmen. A lecture a month by prominent artists, miniature paintings workshop and exhibition, the idea is to create a knowledge pool. To salute M S Randhawa, a host of activities have been planned on his birth centenary on February 2. A seminar in his memory, a documentary film, memorabilia, this will be a huge affair. “He enthused the first whiff of artistic ambience on to the city and it’s our tribute to him.’’ Way to go...
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