Hamdasti and the first Heritage Action Group completed our pilot workshop at the Seminary back in mid-November; however, the Hamdasti team has been traveling across India, and only now have the chance to share some of the photos and insights from our workshop. We're happy to report that the workshop was very successful, both for us and the participants. We worked with between 15 to 20 students from Class VII, of which most students were between 11 and 15 years of age. The class was all male, and most of the students lived in the nearby neighborhood of Chitpur Road. Because the Oriental Seminary is a Bengali-medium school, we conducted all of the workshops in Bengali. On the first day we began a discussion with the students about culture and heritage, especially in the context of Kolkata and Chitpur Road. We talked to them about what culture is, why it's important to study, and the elements of culture that comprise a neighborhood. We also discussed the particular history of Chitpur Road, its role in the Bengal Renaissance, and how different heritage economies of printing, publishing and theater shaped the culture of the neighborhood. We also gave them a homework assignment that asked them to think about culture and heritage, both in the larger sense and within their neighborhood. Some of these questions may have been somewhat heady for the Class VII students, but we were very impressed by the students' ability to understand and discuss new concepts.
After meeting several members of the Chitpur community including printmakers, jatra producers, teachers and students we established our first Action Group. Meet the members! The members of the group will participate in a pilot project to create a local guidebook of the area, written by the students and produced by NC Dutta and Co. The Hamdasti team are working with the members of the group to develop a workshop around the production of this book about history and culture, and the impact of heritage spaces, local communities and economies in shaping the city.
Chitpur (also spelled Chitpore) Road is a neighborhood in north Kolkata. It is one of the most culturally important areas in Kolkata, due to its role in the Bengal Renaissance. As the one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, Chitpur Road contains many old buildings and industries. One of the most historically important industries, which still exists on Chitpur Road today, is the printing industry. Our interest in the print industry on Chitpur Road arises from its proximity to the Oriental Seminary, the proposed site for our community art workshop. We were introduced to the printing presses on the street by an eminent Bengali artist, Aditya Basak, who grew up in the area and continues to create work inspired by the neighborhood and its cultural activities. However, Chitpur Road's printing industry has changed, as new technologies have replaced the traditional methods of manual printing. Though many lithography, woodcut and letterpress presses continue to be active, there are far fewer than in decades past, and the kind of work they produce has changed in type and scale. Yet printing remains an important part of the sociocultural world of Chitpur. While visiting and doing research on Chitpur Road's working print presses, we became interested in the people who comprise the printing industry. Many of the print shop owners come from old Bengali families, and grew up in the neighborhood around the Oriental Seminary. Others have knowledge of old printing technologies that have been passed through co-workers and family members. The print industry continues to function because of their vast resources of knowledge and skill. In our upcoming workshop, we hope to bring knowledge of some of these industries to the students of the local K-12 school. Talking about culture with the students, we hope, will help them to think about how heritage spaces, communities, and local economies can impact the future of a neighborhood. The printing industry is currently an important part of Chitpur, and hopefully will continue to be for many years to come. Check back for more updates on cultural production in North Kolkata!
The Oriental Seminary is one of the oldest schools in Kolkata, located on Chitpur Road in the northern part of the city. It has educated many important Bengali artists and public figures, Rabrindranath Tagore being the most famous. The school is one of West Bengal's most important cultural and educational institutions, and continues to educate hundreds of school children today. The Hamdasti team became interested in this school because it serves as a special, active example of the cultural history of Kolkata. We had heard about the school's importance as a theater institution, given its history as a center of Shakespeare performance in the 19th and 20th centuries. Upon visiting the building, we found ourselves interested in the architecture, its status as an active educational institution, and the dynamic community surrounding the school. We are looking forward to partnering with the Oriental Seminary and the West Bengal Heritage Commission in directing a project about the school, and its potential for physical and cultural restoration. We have a planned a workshop with the Oriental Seminary's students, involving artists, curators, and architects, to discuss with students their ideas about heritage and the overlap between personal and collective histories. Instead of working from a bureaucratic view of historic preservation, we hope to understand the community's needs, desires, and hopes for the physical infrastructure of the city. Please visit our blog for updates on our preliminary research, field trips, information about site, the participants, and the workshop. And please contact us if you are interested in participating!
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HamdastiWe are a Kolkata based non-profit dedicated to promoting civic engagement through participatory art projects. Archives
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