New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts Kalanidhi Division and Media centre held a “Workshop on art and Culture Reporting”. The inaugural session began with lamp lighting by the guests. The chief guest of the session was Ms. Sandhya Purecha, Chairman, Sangeet Natak Akademi, and renowned classical Dancer .New Delhi. The session was chaired by Dr. Sachidanand Joshi, Member Secretary, IGNCA and the welcome remarks were given by Prof. Ramesh Chandra Gaur, HoD, Kalanidhi, IGNCA and Director, National School of Drama, New Delhi. The workshop was introduced to the participants by Dr. P. Harsha Bhargavi, Assistant Director (Public Relations), NGMA, New Delhi. The main objective of this workshop is to provide understanding and vision on how to do better reporting of various dimensions of arts. There are a total of 12 sessions in this three-day workshop, in which senior poet and art critic Mr. Prayag Shukla, senior writer and journalist Mr. Vinod Bhardwaj, senior journalist and editor of Panchjanya weekly Mr. Hitesh Shankar, senior art critic Mr. Anil Goyal Will keep their views on various dimensions of the subject.
In the inaugural session on the first day of the workshop, Dr. Sandhya Purecha said that art review is not a new thing for India. The tradition of art criticism is very old in India as Bharatamuni states in the “Natyashastra” that the first play presented before Lord Brahma was “Amrit Manthanam”. After this it was presented to Lord Shiva after seeing which, Shiva said that I remember my ‘Karana’ and ‘Anghara’. It He said Karana’ and ‘Anghara’ should be included in the drama and that is what makes Lord Shiva the best critic and the Guru. She also reiterated that journalism should be rooted in knowledge and added argument is worthy only and only when it is the voice emanating out of knowledge.
Dr. Sachchidanand Joshi while addressing the participants of the workshop said that when one goes for reporting, one should do their homework about the subject of genre of event. He added that key to art and culture reporting is knowing the fundamentals of the subject and sticking to the basic is important. In this context he said if one is reporting drama, then one should get information about how many types of drama are there, how many types of theatre are there, what are the dimensions of acting? He further added that Bharatmuni has not only told about the various dimensions of drama in “Natyashastra”, he has elaborated on how the auditorium should be, where the fire exit should be in it. Dr. Joshi added that etiquette and civility should also be taken care of while reporting art. He said that this is not a teaching-learning workshop, but a workshop to understand different aspects of art and culture reporting.
In this first session, Prof. Ramesh Gaur informed about the objective of the workshop and the scenario of art and culture reporting. In the second session of the day, Dr. Santosh Shukla, Dean, School of Sanskrit and Indic Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, gave his views on “Indian Knowledge Tradition: Art and Culture”. In the third session, Mrs. Sujata Prasad, retired IAS officer and author, art columnist and advisor to National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), spoke on “Importance of Forms and Colors in Communicating Indian Culture”. The first day ended with the screening of short film “Kashi Ganga Vishwasaraya” produced by IGNCA. The 23-minute film has been directed by Radhika Chandrasekhar. On the second day, February 11, the workshop will begin with the screening of the film “Kashmir Ka Surya” at 10 am.
