Monthly Archives: October 2015

Kolkata gears up for 6-day art fest

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Kolkata :

A galaxy of prominent artists from all over the country will gather in this city for a six-day festival of art being hosted by ArtsAcre Foundation from this weekend. This will be the biggest such gathering of artists in the city in recent memory.

Thirty-one artists will paint, interact, hold workshops, participate in seminars and provide inspiration to budding artists during the festival, which is also the first of its kind in many decades. The renowned artists from outside Bengal who will be attending the festival include Himmat Shah, Madhvi Parekh, Prabhakar Kolte, Rameshwar Broota and Vasundhara Tewari Broota, Ravinder Reddy, Surya Prakesh, S.G Vasudev, Thota Vaikuntam, Veer Munshi and Vrindavan Solanki. Bengal artists Ganesh Haloi, Jogen Chowdhury, K.G. Subramanyam and Rabin Mondal, besides ArtsAcre founder Shuvaprasanna, will be part of the festival.

“The primary objective of this festival is for it to become a platform for art workshops that will immensely benefit students of fine arts and budding and young artists,” said Shuvaprasanna. This will be the first time that artists like Himmat Shah and Rameshwar Broota will come to the city for such a festival, he said.

The sprawling ArtsAcre campus at Rajarhat will be a beehive of activity on all the six days from November 1. “In the evenings we’ll have attractive cultural programmes. Films like the award-winning ‘Asha Jaoar Majhe’ and U R Ananthamurthy’s ‘Samskara’ will be screened. Soumitra Chatterjee will stage his ‘Kalmrigaya’ one evening, while a Chhau dance will be presented by Dilip Mahato and his troupe on another evening. Apart from musical performances, two books on Bismillah Khan and K G Subramanyam will be released at the festival.

ArtsAcre, a world-class integrated arts facility at Rajarhat, was conceived as an institution for nurturing young artists in the field of visual arts. Its foundation stone was laid by Gunter Grass in March 1984 and the new campus inaugurated 30 years later by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in March last year. ArtsAcre houses a museum of modern Bengal art showcasing many contemporary artists of Bengal, four art galleries spread over nearly 7500 square feet, a world-class auditorium, a conservation laboratory, studios, space for workshops, a conference room, and amphitheater and 18 guest apartments, besides many other facilities.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / TNN /October 31st, 2015

Kolkata: Award for the best among equals

Business & Economy, Leaders, Records, All

Kolkata :

On Panchami, celebrities and who’s who of the corporate world came together to name the winners of Ultra Force Premium presents Times Sharod Srestho 2015 (TSS), a contest to choose the best among the most popular pujas in Kolkata and Salt Lake.

The contest was powered by UCO Bank and jewellery partner Senco Gold & Diamonds; with associate sponsors Smithcucina Infracooka Super Cooktop and National Insurance Company, welfare partner Lions Club and co-sponsors LIC Housing Finance Ltd and CII Surakshit Khadya Abhiyan.

In its ninth edition, the initial two rounds of judging were carried out by Art College professors on the basis of parameters, such as best music, best theme and best surprise element. The final round of judging on Sunday saw celebrity judges —actors Abir Chatterjee, Swastika Mukherjee, Pauli Dam, Sonalee Choudhury, Rajatava Dutta, Anindya Chatterjee, Ritabhori Chakraborty, Priyanka Pal, Roja Paromita Dey designer Debarun Mukherjee, photographer Supratik Chatterjee, make-up artist Annirudh Chaklader, cinematographer Soumik Haldar, art director Koushik Dutta and director Sekhar Das—select the winners from among the shortlisted names, for different categories such as the best puja, best idol and jewellery. Ajeya Sanghati (Haridevpur), Behala Friends and Suruchi Sangha (New Alipore) bagged the Srestho Pujos.

“This is my fourth year with TSS. It’s fun to travel with friends and colleagues as we get to see the pujas in such a comfortable manner,” said Swastika. Director Sekhar Das said, “It was lovely to be associated with Times Sharod Srestho. An overall nice experience.”

For Pauli, it was a unique get-together, replete with adda, snacks and the opportunity to see some of the best pandals. “That is why I make it a point to keep myself free for this event every year,” she said. “I am thankful to The Times of India for giving me this opportunity to visit the best pujas and pandals,” said Abir.

Kuntal Chatterjee, COO, IMFL (Ultra Force Premium), Rajiv Mohan of UCO Bank, Suraj Prakash Gupta of Smithcucina Infracooka, Lion Swapan Bhattacharya, Lion Kishan Podar, Lion Mahendra Jain and Lion Hemant Marda, Ashim Bhuyan of LICHFL, Sarbani Pal of Senco Gold & Diamonds, R K Sahu of National Insurance Company, Indrani Ghosh and Subrata Banerjee of CII were also among the panel of judges.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kolkata / TNN / October 20th, 2015