This link has been bookmarked by 1 people . It was first bookmarked on 22 Aug 2008, by gibreel ferishta.
Buoyed by the interest foreigners evince in the multifarious folk art forms of the State, the Art and Culture Department has decided to prepare a database of names, addresses and contact numbers of all folk artistes, who are being enrolled with the Folk Artistes Welfare Board, and post the same on the Internet.
There was encouraging feedback from foreign tourists at the dance festival in Mahabalipuram, where classical and folk art forms were given equal importance this time. It was this overwhelming admiration of visitors of various nationalities at the Berlin Tourism Expo, earlier this year for a Madurai-based folk artiste, Muthu, the Secretary for Tourism and Culture, V. Irai Anbu said that stressed the importance of folk artistes and the official establishment was reaching out to them for enhancing their quality of life with an allotment of Rs.1crore for the Board.
The database will also help the establishment in resurrecting those art forms that were near extinction, he said.
There was a huge turnout of artistes at a function organised for their enrolment here on Wednesday. Launching the enrolment, Mr. Irai Anbu informed that about 10,000 folk artistes practising the 100 art forms listed in a special government order have registered as members with the Welfare Board so far, and several thousands were expected to follow suit.
tamil-nadu tiruchi folk art tradition traditional-knowledge internet
Would you like to comment?
Join Diigo for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.