124 Woman’s Era ● May (First) 2014

Art is the stored honey of thehuman soul, gathered onwings of misery and travail-Theodore Dreiser. In therace of being modernisedwe, somewhere, lose ourtribal culture and ancestry.The funny part is that evenafter knowing that we areignoring the best we have

we donʼt take care of it. The workwhich has been hugely appreciatedin the international market for itsaesthetic sensibility and authenticityis hardly given its due importance inits own homeland. A wide variety ofactivities and strategies are beingemployed by native people topreserve and protect theirirreplaceable heritage.

As an attempt to acknowledge theroots of a great artistic traditionestablished by communities whohave been consistently kept outsideestablished art history through blatentmarginalisation and oppressions, theLalit Kala Akademi, hosted itsʻNational Tribal Art Conclaveʼ from31st March- 6th April 2014 atRabindra Bhavan, New Delhi. A well-known art critic Keshav Malikinaugurated the conclave. Around100 artists from all over the nationwere brought to the ʻNational Tribal

Art Conclaveʼ where the tribal andContemporary Artists experimentedand created art forms to narrativisetheir landscape. Gond, Warli,Rathwa, Muria Gaud, Konda,Tiba,Manjuli, Dhuri, Maring, Maram, Mizo,Mishing and Meena are few of thetribal traditions that were showcasedin the conclave..

Dr. K. K Chakravarty, ChairmanLalit Kala Akademi stated, "Thetransformation, over the past twocenturies, of forests from non-fiscal,non timber,ecological habitats intotimber mines, empty areas fordevelopment, carbon sinks and fiscalresource have deprived folk and tribalarts. The presentation of these arts inurban festivals and formal statecelebrations rather than theircelebration in their own contexts, hastended to beggar the arts of their

relevance in addressing the rhythmof life and livelihood.

An artist Champakali Shyam whocame from Chattisgarh said “Myhusband is my guru in art andsupports me and my artworks andmotivates me to take part in artcamps and Melas. I have participatedin many exhibitions and conclavesbefore and will continue doing that.We bring our soil for the world and itfeels great when people from cityappreciate your work”.

Another skilled practitioner of thetraditional bhitti chitra art of Sarguja,Chhattisgarh, Sundri Bai, a tribalartist has showcased her skills allacross India, and was even invitedto a major exhibition of Indian tribalart at the Quai Branly Museum inParis.

A jovial person Dhananjoy Rabhafrom Assam said in his not-so-goodHindi how thankful he is with the kindof appreciation he received for hiswork. He said “ I have been part ofart camps but never got anopportunity to visit a city like Delhi toexplore my work. The applause mypaintings received is my real reward.

Here is an excerpt from theinterview with Gayatri Tondon,Programme Officer (Planning andProgramme) at Lalit Kala Akademi:

TRIBAL ART SANSMARKET HYPE

Keeping the tribal knack alive in

modern time. By Megha Jetley

The tribal artists rejoicing the Delhi conclave.

Keshav Malik with KK Chakravarty.

How did the idea of starting atribal art camp strike?

Lalit kala akademi is misunder -stood that it is only for high arts, Weare also into the mandate of preser -ving traditional and tribal art. ʻThetribal art conclaveʼ is just an attemptto revitalise the mandate of ours. Theartists are working in presentscenario although their work is tribaland if we are not going to appreciateour own roots then it is very hard to

excel it further. We need to see thesmall pockets in our country else theywill vanish.

How did the tribal artists werecontacted and how did youconvince them to come and jointhe conclave?

We looked at many resourcefulpersons, we also looked forinstitutions who are working withthem, whether NGOʼs or governmentinstitutes. We contacted the artistsdirectly removing the middlemenbecause the purpose of the campwas that whatever every artist isgoing to gain out of the camp shouldbe solely for the artist, so weremoved the middlemen.

Any other camp your akademiorganises for the backward artistswho lack opportunities?

We have been having regularcamps, regular festivals all over thecountry, we also have five regionalcentres at Chennai, Lucknow,Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Shimla andGarhi. They coordinate the programs

we have in faraway cities. We alsohave a lot of research happening inthis tribal sector. We tried to do thiscamp on a large scale.

What incentives does govern -ment provide to these tribalartists?

Exactly what government gives Ihave no idea but our akademi dohave a special fund for these tribalartists. From this year almost all theart organisations are providing fundsfor these tribal artists.

Woman’s Era ● May (First) 2014 125

Gayatri Tondon.

Artist painting the beauty of nature.

We

This year Art Mall felicitated artists,especially young budding artistsencouraging their valour to go tohigher level of art and getacknowledged in the society of

Art on international level. The awarddistribution event is marked everyyear at the end of March. In 2014,young artists received the energisingwords from art masters. The awardceremony was conducted by BhikhuRam Jain Foundation at Art Mall,New Delhi.

The Bhiku Ram Jain Foundationawards 2014 were given to the arttalents in different categories. Inpainting, the award went toBhuvneshwar Bhaskar , Dilip KumarSingh, Sacheekant Jha and SanjaySingh. In drawing and photography,the award was given to Rishi RajTomar and Rajiv Chakrabortyrespectively. The jurists who gavetheir time and expertise in the

selection were S N Lahiri, Principal,Delhi College of Art; AshokBhowmick, an eminent artist andDalip Sharma, an art faculty. Therewas a big art show organised daysbefore finally award ceremony at theArt Mall and the show was curetedby Mr Naren Jain who runs theBhikhu Ram Jain Institute of Fine Art

at the same place.By joining hands with the Bhikhu

Ram Jain Foundation philanthropicinstitution, the Art Mall hasestablished itself as a uniqueinstitution working towards thepromotion of multiculturalism in artthrough artistic aspirations.

– Abhishek Kumar.

ARTISTS HONOURED