We all know that the India is rich with various arts forms but they are slowly disappearing from the main stream as the main stream concentrates more on the new forms of arts imported/ copied from European and American countries. Some would argue that the new forms of arts are just derivatives / degradations of the old forms. Anyway the old forms are slowly disappearing and there has to be a process to bring them back to life.
The Thanjavur-headquartered South Zone Cultural Centre (SZCC) has compiled a computerised database of artistes of various art forms from the southern states. The database contains complete details of 3,600 artistes of various art form categories such as folk and classical dances, instrumental, classical and folk vocal, painting and sculpture and theatre of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Puducherry , Lakshwadweep and Andamans. This database will be used for grading the artists as well. Hopefully the grading algorithm will take many factors into consideration. The objective of compiling the database is also to enhance the communication between the artistes and the centre.
The SZCC has planned a series of intensive cultural exchange programmes by bringing artistes of various art forms from the northern states to the south.
The programmes would be held in September – October at Chennai, Thanjavur, Madurai and Kanyakumari to encourage better cultural exchanges between the north and the south.
Subsequently, artistes from south would be taken to Agra, Varanasi, Allahabad and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh to showcase their art forms.
I think in addition to showcasing their talents in North India, I think they should showcase their talents in their native states also. I looked for the web address for this site, but could not find out. It will be great to have that publicly available.
