Project ‘Arts Alive’ aims to map the journey of the Creators and the Curators – the challenges, the overcoming and the expressions henceforth. It is a Webinar Series that investigates and analyses the ongoing artistic activity, worldwide. This project looks into dialogic intersection of different artistic mediums in the context of different disciplines used to create/curate performances and interventions. The objective of the series is to study the process of transition to understand and highlight the persistent creative adaptations taken up by the artists from all over the world, including the South Asian diaspora and others, in the global context. The webinar series is going to be documented and archived to serve as a point of reference for contemporary artists, to retain the past, empower the present generation and transmit its ethos to the future with arts consultancy.
Further, the documentation will also be produced as an E-book and published in print, to be a reference of the Arts, the Artists and the Times during and post the pandemic.
Launched in April 2021, the Project ‘Arts Alive’ has already completed seven episodes. The responses we received have encouraged us to expand the webinar series as a marker, to map the journey of the Arts and the Artists across the world.
The Creative Arts Academy and Testimony Arts have been selected as Grantees for the Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grants 2021-22 for their collaborative project 'Arts Alive'.
ARTS ALIVE’ – The Arts, The Artist and The Times, is a webinar series curated by Ramanjit Kaur (Founder Director, TCAA, India) during the pandemic. The first six episodes of this series brought together artists from South Asia and worldwide to investigate, analyze and archive the global artistic activity during the pandemic.
The Australian segment of this series will be co-curated by Kaur and Tammy Brennan (Artistic Director, Testimony Arts, Australia) and will bring together art practitioners from Australia and worldwide to look into the dialogic intersection of different artistic disciplines (Music, Dance, Theatre, Visual Arts, Film Making, Literature, Arts Management, Curation of Festivals and Funding) in the international cultural context.
A conversation with Padmashree Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry, one of the most eminent theatre pedagogues and directors of India and South Asia, where she shares her creative journey and experience of directing ‘Black Box’ during the initial days of pandemic. She discusses the process and need of re-inventing tools of theatre making and looking into creating a unique approach for ‘Black Box’ featuring only one actor and elements that stemmed out of the actor’s artistic imaginations. The webinar was moderated by Ramanjit Kaur the Founder Director of TCAA and conjoined with actor Vansh Bharadwaj, who acted in ‘Black Box’.
A conversation with Maestro Bhai Baldeep Singh, the founder of Anād Foundation, a classical vocalist, a music conservator, luthier, exponent of the Gurbani Sangeet, a divine poet and an eminent scholar, who shares his journey of one year of curating and hosting Yaar Anād Virtual Baithak Series. His series started in March 2020 in Italy, documenting and conserving the artistic journeys and creative processes of the artists from around the world, belonging to various art forms like Music, Dance, Theatre, Visual Arts, Literature.
The webinar was moderated by Ramanjit Kaur the Founder Director of TCAA and featured few of the artists interviewed during the Baithak Series and Bhai Baldeep ji’s students from across the world.
A conversation between Mahesh Dattani, a renowned Sahitya Akademi Awardee Playwright, Mentor from India, with Michael Walling, the eminent UK based Artistic Director of Border Crossings. In the webinar, these artists share about their artistic interventions during the pandemic across their times, space and cultures. They discuss how the present times and approaches towards theatre and life in general has pushed them to invent and re-imagine their artistic ideas.
A conversation between Anita Ratnam, an eminent dancer, scholar and founder of Narthaki, India, with USA based Artistic Director of Pangea World Theatre, Dipankar Mukherji, where they discuss about innovations in the arts and building communities across continents during the pandemic times. Both the artists shared their experiences and processes of their creative journeys and challenges that artists face while bringing community arts in an international context.
A conversation between Chandradasan, celebrated Theatre Director and Founder of Lokadharmi from India with Lissa Tyler Renaud, an actress, theatre critic, master teacher and Founder of InkArts, USA, where they discuss about the creative exchanges, influences, process and critical analysis across borders, with a focus on the present times. This webinar not only delved in discussing the methodologies of creating an artistic project in present times, but also shared how methods were invented and executed to bring out a production in earlier times.
A conversation between Mahesh Dattani, a renowned Playwright, Mentor and the first Sahitya Akademi Awardee English Playwright with eminent Artistic Director, Writer and Co-founder of Crossroads Theatre, USA, Ricardo Khan, as they share their experience as artists in times of changing socio-political-cultural scenario. This webinar takes place in a Hybrid situation where both the artists in conversation are in the same room in USA and the tech support and platform is operated virtually from India. This webinar marks international mobility during the pandemic.
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Contact Details
The Creative Arts Academy
31/2a Sadananda Road Kolkata – 700026
Email: [email protected] / [email protected]
Phone Number: +91 9831140988 / +91 9830775677