Ananya GML Cultural Academy

Ananya, a Bangalore based non-profit cultural organisation, was established for promoting, propagating and nurturing the varied cultural art forms of India. Through its varied activities, it has been an agent of cultural change in the music world of Karnataka. Apart from conducting weekly concerts by veteran and upcoming musicians, Ananya has set up Sangraha, an archive which houses concert music, books and photographs of artists. Abhivyakti, a Kannada monthly journal dedicated to music and the fine arts, is published by Ananya and is circulated among connoisseurs. This grant will enable Ananya to produce and broadcast 13 episodes of the radio programme, ‘Haadu Hakki’, on Carnatic music, and publish and disseminate printed support materials. The programme is aimed to reach over eight million middle school children in the age group of 8 to 15.

The programme will comprise 13 half hour weekly episodes, which will form a part of the educational initiative aired by All India Radio, Karnataka, in their daily school broadcast. Printed supporting material will be provided to select schools by Ananya on a monthly basis. This will be included as a part of Ananya’s monthly music magazine, ‘Abhivyakti’. The radio programme will run from December 1, 2006. Funds will underwrite the cost of producing a print magazine for 18 months starting December 2006. The broadcast will expose children to the nuances of music (Carnatic, in particular). Ananya has already produced a pilot of nine episodes, which has been well received by children as well as older audiences. Letters of appreciation have come in from different parts of the state. As part of the current project, interactive sessions between young musicians and school children have been planned in different parts of Karnataka to complement the broadcast and print material. In addition, music organisations, teachers and community groups of music lovers will be identified in approximately 25 places, to reinforce the learning. These resource people will also collect feedback from different schools and provide their assessment to the production team.

IFA and Ananya have identified a few possibilities for the further dissemination of the audio and printed material after the initial broadcast run. AIR Karnataka has indicated the possibility of a second run in the next school year (2007-08). Dissemination plans include the packaging of the audio and print material for sale in home markets and across the Indian diaspora.