Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday appointed acclaimed sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik as the president of Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi.
Born to a poor family at Marchikote lane in Puri in 1977, he has been creating sand sculptures on almost all current issues on the Puri sea beach.
Sudarsan has also been creating social awareness at national and international arena on world peace, global warming, terrorism, cleanliness drive, to save endangered wildlife species and other social issues through his sand art.
The noted sand artist has participated in more than 50 international sand art championships and festivals around the world and won several prizes and recognition for his social messages through the art.
He was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India, in 2014 for his contribution to sand arts. He has also bagged various national award like National Youth award, National Tourism award, People of the year award by Limca Book in 2009 and Young Indian leadership award by CNN IBN.
The sand artist will start a campaign on Puri beach to attract tourists ahead of the Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup Bhubaneswar 2018. The campaign will focus on the promotion of hockey as well as sand art.
He also runs Sudarsan Sand Art School in Puri.
