‘Kala Kumbh’ Concludes at KIIT & KISS In Odisha’s Capital

Bhubaneswar: ‘Kala Kumbh’, the six-day-long mega artists’ workshop at KIIT and KISS to celebrate ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ and the unsung heroes of India’s freedom movement, concluded on Friday.

Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) and Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) signed an MoU with the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) under the Ministry of Culture recently to work jointly to protect, preserve and promote tribal art, craft, stories and culture through research and documentation, exhibitions of contemporary artworks, seminars, conferences and exchange visits for tribal artisans. This is first of its kind in India.

Dr Achyuta Samanta, Founder, KIIT and KISS; Adwaita Gadanayak, DG, NGMA, New Delhi; Harshvardhan Sharma, Chairman, Advisory Committee, NGMA; Himanshu Khatua, eminent filmmaker and Prof SS Ray, Director, School of Architecture and Planning, KIIT University, attended the programme.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Samanta said that it was a matter of pride for Odisha that such a mega artist workshop has been organised at KIIT and KISS. “Odisha is well-known for its rich art. It is a privilege for KIIT and KISS to join this event,” he added. He thanked Gadanayak for his initiative to organise the event at KIIT and KISS.

Gadanayak said that the workshop marks a unique collaboration between the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Defence and similar workshops will also be held in other parts of the country. “It is intended to showcase our rich cultural heritage of indigenous and contemporary visual art practices, focusing on diverse geographical locations of India. It was an embodiment of all that is progressive about India’s socio-cultural, political and economic identity, which was intended to be prominently represented on large scale,” he said.

Artists from across India including Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, north-east and Andhra Pradesh participated, with indigenous art forms such as Pattachitra, Talapatrachitra, Manjusa, Madhubani and Jadupatua.

Harshvardhan Sharma, Chairman, Advisory Committee, NGMA; eminent artists Ramahari Jena and Veejayant Das also coordinated and mentored the event.