The use of organic colours extracted from different natural materials was the most iconic character of Patachitra of any places including Bharatpur. But nowadays chitrakars are using synthetic acrylic colours on it. From a previous field visit by our team, we were able to identify their mindset behind sifting from natural colours to acrylic colours.
∙ Acrylic colours are more vibrant than the colours they are using.
∙ Acrylic colours are more sustainable on the canvas than organic colours they are exacting
∙ They don’t have the awareness of the importance of using natural colours and the harmfulness of using synthetic colours.

Under the ‘Community Leadership Program’, presented by our organization ‘Bridging Culture and Art Foundation’ a two-day program was designed in collaboration with the primary partner ‘WICCI’- Women’s Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, resource partner Botanical Survey of India, Local Partner Lok Sanghati and museum Partner Paschim Rarh Itihas o Sanskriti Charcha Kendra.

On 26th March 2022 we organized a documentary film screening at Bharatpur Prathamik Vidyalaya at Bharatpur, Bankura, for the artisans on ‘Indigo Dye making technique’. Our objective was to create the awareness among the artisans that it is possible to make vibrant colours from natural elements by following the right method and using the right technique.

We reached the venue on time with our resource partners. The local partner managed to arrange a projector for the film screening at primary school, as there were no such facilities available in that space. Although we were not sure about the impact of the film screening even after reaching the venue, when the film was projected on the screen, all doubts vanished. There, about 20 artisans including the senior citizens and the women were present as audience and all of them were watching the documentary with full of interest. Team members from the Resource Partner team helped them by explaining some of the processes shown in the film in their vernacular language by eliminating the hard academic terminologies and using easy-to-understand terms.

After the film screening, our team interacted with the artisans to get an idea about their drawing techniques, and use of colours. They show us some of their organic colours extracted from the leaves (green colour), a piece of rock (Red colour, and the rock was red hematite). The information, that came out from those conversations had helped us to design the next program for them based on their needs.
After the program, the artisans were very excited and said that they want to learn the techniques to make sustainable natural dye from natural elements.

The initiation of B-CAF happened with the sudden demise of the renowned Patachitra artisan, Gurupada Chitrakar. We understood that even after being an internationally acclaimed artist, the pandemic didn’t spare him from stopping his earnings. His death worked as an eye-opener for us and we recognized the need for building leadership and entrepreneurship within the communities to make them self-sustainable.

B-CAF runs a unique Community Leadership Program to develop leaders in communities, it aims to provide decent work, foster innovation, and promote sustained and inclusive economic growth by Building Leadership and Entrepreneurship within the communities. The Community Leadership Program aims to engage with the community for the development of art practice and livelihood.

We understand that there are several communities that practice different art forms. Without a proper cultural mapping, it is difficult to identify communities that are unrecognized. Often, the lack of transportation for being in a remote space does not allow a community to be reachable. Hence, on one side, some communities are getting benefits from different resources regularly and they are growing and sustaining themselves. On the other side, some of them, despite having a rich culture of heritage tradition of art practice in their livelihood, are not getting the exposure. The continuous lack of resources is moving them away from their art practices as they are choosing different occupations for earnings. There is lack of interest in their next generations to be in the same art practices as there is a huge uncertainty of financial earnings and livelihood. As a result, some of the traditional forms are dying slowly and some of them are on the verge of getting obsolete.

We, under the Community Leadership Program, aim to identify those communities of artisans and work with them. The program has been designed to build leadership and entrepreneurship within communities.

From the field visits to communities, we understood that skill development is essential to increase markets for their product. Interventions such as design upskilling is necessary to bring innovation in design to make their artworks relevant to contemporary buyers. In most traditional art practices, artisans follow some regular subjects and styles, but it is also necessary to innovate ideas and incorporate new avenues within the forms so that the form can be relevant. It is also necessary to bring them back to their roots of using organic materials from where they are moving away as per the market demand. Because using non- organic materials is easier, sometimes due to the lack of monetary support and resources, the artisans choose to do so. CLP also provides knowledge on marketing and selling so that they can make a sustainable ecosystem for themselves. The design and other capacity-building interventions foster innovation and promote sustained and inclusive Economic growth in line with SGD Goal 8.

The Community Leadership Program focuses on bringing out leadership qualities within the community so that the community can grow within itself. Hence, the program provides fellowships to the potential artisans who have leadership qualities so that the learning can be brought back to the communities’ growth and development. The fellowship program includes eminent scholars and artists who bring their knowledge and skills to the learning space.

However, the design of the program is careful not to de-root the artisans from their practices but uplift their skills and techniques. We, as a team, also understand the necessity of having knowledge of the ethics of ethnographic work and engaging with the communities. It is paramount that an organization also focuses on understanding the ethics to engage with the community in their practice. As there is a struggle with the boundaries and roles of the researcher and the organisation while engaging with the community. Hence, we have engaged with scholars and practitioners through talk series who have experience of working with communities to discuss how to create a sustainable non-hierarchical space for the program. Our aim is to create a safe space for the artisans and for the art forms.

For the celebration of World Theatre Day, a small group of theatre lovers and enthusiasts gathered in a cafe in Kolkata to discuss the understanding of community theatre practice in Bengal. The speaker, Anshuman Bhowmick has covered the range of ideas and concerns that we share about the community theatre practice.

The talk started with the history of folk theatre in Bengal and described how the practice started. The need of being together and living together created some ritualistic practices in ancient history. The way in which the people came together and practiced rituals shaped the form of theatre. That is how the community theatre practice started in Bengal and evolved and developed over time.

The history of Bengali theatre is saying that the practice of proscenium theatre came with the British emperor. Along with that, the usage of the stage, and architectural model in set design came in. As this style of theatre got adapted by the elite class of Kolkata, Bhadrolok, it started dominating the theatre scenario. Over a period of time, Bengali theatre became proscenium stage- oriented theatre and got tagged as mainstream theatre practice. This categorization kept the community theatre outside. There is a pre-set hierarchy that keeps the community theatre practice out of the mainstream, which was not considered ‘high-art’. In the same way, the word or tag ‘folk’ has been created through the politics of class and caste and by tagging an art form as ‘folk’, it tends to highlight it as a non-mainstream art form. Hence, the current system has discarded the word ‘folk’ in theatre practice and emphasizes the term ‘community’ in theatre practice. In Bengali, it is called Lokanatya where the word Loka recognizes people. 

The current theatre academia considers Natyashastra as the dictionary of theatre practice. Bhowmick says that the community theatre practice in Bengal is older than Natyashastra. The ancient texts like Charyapad have mentioned how ritualistic practice has been there as a form of entertainment. The word Nataka has been mentioned in the text. Later, the rituals have created songs and kinds of music that describe the daily life of common people and created pieces like Mangalkabya which has been performed in many places of Bengal. These were the root of Bengali theatre which never had the citation of stagecraft that Natyashastra describes. Though the proscenium theatre has been influenced by the community theatre.

In the present scenario, the practitioners who have studied theatre at various national universities are going back to their roots and taking elements from the community theatre, they are creating new works. The urban practitioners are understanding the importance of the practices. Therefore, the contemporary theatre scenario is no anymore bounded in the proscenium stage but also moves beyond through experimentations. That is the way in which the ancient community theatre practice is making connections with contemporary. Though some forms are not being performed anymore, the practices which remain, are evolving and transforming as time requires. It is also necessary to have the representation of community theatre people in the decision-making committee. It is essential that the voice of people who practice community theatre, be heard by the authority who has the administrative power. That is how the community theatre practice in Bengal is continuing to be alive and going forward with its evolution. 

B-CAF in collaboration with West Bengal Arts Leadership Council, WICCI, is organizing a Capacity Building Workshop at Bharatpur. Our Resource Partner Botanical Survey of India will conduct the workshop and lecture-demonstration on Dyeing techniques using natural materials with the artisans and research scholars on 26th and 27th March 2022.We are thankful to Paschim Rarh Itihaas O Sanskriti Charcha Kendra, Library & Museum, and Lok Sanghita Foundation for their support.

Theatre talks about ensemble growth with people within the community and Bengal shares a long history of community theatre. On the occasion of World Theatre Day, B-CAF is organizing a session, “Community Theatre of Bengal” with Cultural Commentator and theatre Critic Anshuman Bhowmick

The word “Ethnography” denotes the idea of learning and writing about the community. The ethnography practice derived in the colonial period largely from the urge of knowing about the lesser- known communities and has been criticised for it’s colonial biases. The process of writing about the community also tends to get influenced by the pre-conceived knowledge and notions of the researcher. Ethnography as a process depends knowledge gathered from the observations by living in/ with the community. But, can anyone live somebody else’s life? Or, is the researcher only pretending to become a part of the community? The process requires an understanding of the limitations that come with the different spaces the researchers and the communities they work with inhabit. The researchers need to be conscious about their subjectivity and become a ‘vulnerable observer’ to begin a journey of co-learning and co-experiencing in the community space.

As there is often a pre-set hierarchy assumed by the researcher in such programs, Dr. Sarkar Munsi’s discussion centred around the idea of “learning to unlearn” as a basic tool of such community-based work. In the talk, Dr. Sarkar Munsi asked, what is the way to be ethical in the process of knowing? How do we place ourselves? She suggested that the process has to generate a form of co-creation and sharing of knowledge generated from discussions with the community – by bringing together skills and building on the need of the community. The generated knowledge belongs to both the community and researcher and the consent of making and sharing the knowledge has to come from both. She again questions, how does consent work in a position of power? The researcher, who has the ability to write, appears with a camera and a microphone – automatically sets forth a hierarchy in the space. That also tends to create a hierarchy of knowledge. As a result, one has to constantly create spaces for dialogue and sharing while planning any program or activity with the community.

As the community consistently adjusts to its embodied and experiential lived realities, it is necessary to revisit the space over and over again to understand the changes and nuances. Dr. Sarkar Munsi mentions how repeated exposure to the everyday life/space of the community is necessary to understand the needs and views of any human group. Imposition of pre-planned ideas is often the norm that one needs to consciously avoid. Hence, it is necessary to create a clear boundary of ethics through a self-reflexive process in the ethnographic work, while working for/with, writing and learning about people.