Staying Connected #9 | Local Arts Matter, Now More Than Ever | June 23, 2020

Have you met communities that celebrate their local stories? Art that springs from collaboration and social engagement? An aesthetic that is grounded in its context, in its home?

As people come together to help one another through these trying times, the outbreak of the pandemic and lockdown has made us realise the value of stronger local communities. There is no better unifier than art, to birth connections that transcend differences and appreciate shared spaces. That is why today we present two unique artistic endeavours in local communities from Bengal and Karnataka - Chitpur Local by Sumona Chakravarty and Myself Mohan 1909 by Shaunak Mahbubani as part of the Staying Connected Series by India Foundation for the Arts (IFA). Scroll down and browse to find out more about their creative pursuits and community participation, in local contexts.

Chitpur Local by Sumona Chakravarty
The project initiated in November 2013 at Chitpur Road, one of Kolkata’s oldest roads, and the main artery of the erstwhile “Black Town”. The project is centered around one particular neighbourhood- known as Jatrapara, or Battala, which was the hub of popular traditions like Jatra (travelling theatre), printmaking, publishing, jewellery-making, and bamboo crafts. By bringing together a collective of artists, students, teachers, residents and shop-owners, the team collaboratively developed three public projects at three sites in the area. The projects included a pop-up museum, a card game that triggered a process of remembering the narratives of the community that was played at street corners, and story boxes for a historic bookstore. Community members joined in at each stage, as co-artists, producers, advisors and even story-tellers in developing and testing these projects, and as they developed they took greater ownership and adapted the projects to meet their needs. This culminated in a Public Art Festival in the locality in March 2015 that deepened community networks, helped them reach out to wider audiences and collectively imagine new possibilities for the future of this locality. Click here and follow this link to experience this journey of a neighbourhood collective and the re-activation of their space through art and public participation!

Sumona Chakravarty of Hamdasti Collective, received two grants from India Foundation for the Arts, under the Arts Practice programme in 2014 and 2017, to re-energise Chitpur locality which has a rich history and heritage, through various cultural activities, innovative audience engagement and archiving with the help of local residents, businessmen, artists, craftsmen, teachers and students.

Myself Mohan 1909 by Shaunak Mahbubani

The project involved a series of multi-disciplinary artistic interventions in the 100-year old Mohan building, in Chikpet, one of the busiest shopping areas of Bangalore that brought alive the biographical journey of the Mohan building. Over six months, the team uncovered the 100-year old history of the Mohan Building through the community of shopkeepers that inhabit it and its surroundings. Through their continuous interactions with the community, the team discovered stories of disputes of ownership, the various functions the building had, and the colourful characters that inhabited the building over time. The project culminated in a three-day festival which saw the building take on the role of the protagonist, telling them its story through a journey of 22-mixed media installations. Click here to learn more about the project, and click here for everyday stories of the Mohan Building that has adorned multiple avatars ranging from a taluk kacheri, commercial complex to police station and lodge.

The Klatsch Collective received a grant as part of Project 560, 2015, an IFA initiative, partnered by Citi India to unearth the history of Bangalore and its living heritage through an engagement with the multi-layered narratives of Mohan Building and its precincts.