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Hamdasti
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  • Our Work
    • The Fellowships >
      • Chitpur Local 2014 - 16
      • Chitpur Local 2017 - 18
      • Connecting Local 2019 - 20
    • Chitpur Craft Collective
    • Para Artscapes
  • Events
    • Art for (of and by) All July 25- 31
    • Past Events >
      • Stereoscopic Narratives - Sep 2018
      • Tales of Chitpur - The Chitpur Local Art Festival 2018
      • Chitpur Local PopUp @Sienna Store
      • Chitpur Revisited 4- September 1, 2017
      • Chitpur Revisited
      • Does Art Matter? with UNESCO
      • Chitpur (dis)Local, Mumbai
      • Chitpur Local @ Studio 21
      • Chitpur Local Festival, 2015
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Transforming relationships between people, communities and the city through collective cultural practices    

Hamdasti, meaning partnership in Persian, is a non-profit arts organization based in Kolkata, India that develops collaborations between artists and communities.

We believe that art and design play a critical role in creating public platforms for dialogue, interaction, civic participation and social engagement.
 
Hamdasti supports fellowships in which creative practitioners from diverse fields work with communities, schools and government departments to collectively design and implement cultural projects.

Through innovative, community-driven art and design practices, we aim to strengthen the relationships between people, communities and their cities.


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We started with one question "what would happen if artists located their in police stations, local schools, libraries and other community spaces?"
Through collaborative art practices we aim to create public platforms for dialogue, interaction, civic participation and social engagement where...
Under-represented communities get a space to share their narratives in order to bring focus to diverse histories that are often forgotten or left behind.
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The Pop-up museum project in the first edition of the Chitpur Local Fellowship enabled students and local communities to share their family histories.
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Interactions between diverse communities, across social hierarchies and divisions reshape understandings of identities and histories, and build new relationships.
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Framing a Grihalakshmi brought women and male photographers together to share experiences of being photographed as prospective brides and examine evolving notions of a woman's role in a family, during the second edition of Chitpur Local.
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Interactions between people and their city create greater ownership and public engagement, and catalyze new ideas for activating community spaces and local traditions.
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The Connecting Local Fellowship is hosted by the Kolkata Police who are interested in seeing how an artist can transform the traffic guard, as well as by the Mitra and Dutta Family who want to open up their homes to cultural practices.
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Our Goals

Our Fellowship programs, collectives and civil society collaborations, located in Kolkata's Chitpur area and other communities, focus on three key goals.

Building a platform for artists and creative practitioners who are invested in working with communities.

Building and supporting a network of diverse community spaces and groups, such as schools, libraries and community centres and local government offices, who support art in communities.


Developing collaborations between artists and communities to create engaged community spaces.
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