A new in­sti­tu­tion has re­cent­ly been es­tab­lished, the Kathak Kala Sangam, an Acad­e­my for the Arts. The term Kathak Kala Sangam, trans­lat­ed as an un­fold­ing sto­ry of the con­ver­gence of the arts, was es­tab­lished in Ju­ly 2009. It was a re­sponse to a need by lo­cal art en­thu­si­asts for an or­gan­i­sa­tion that will work to­wards shift­ing na­tion­al at­ten­tion from the cur­rent gen­er­al quag­mire of artis­tic medi­oc­rity. Its vi­sion is to be an or­gan­i­sa­tion that de­vel­ops and pro­motes, in­di­vid­u­al­ly and col­lec­tive­ly, our di­verse artis­tic tra­di­tions. It aims to cross cul­tur­al bound­aries, si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly as­sim­i­lat­ing, de­vel­op­ing and pro­mot­ing the best of each of our peo­ple's cul­tures.

The Sangam pro­pos­es to re­alise the above vi­sion by de­vel­op­ing and main­tain­ing pub­lic ed­u­ca­tion in, and ap­pre­ci­a­tion of, the art of dance, dra­ma, song and the sci­ence of mu­sic and nur­ture cre­ativ­i­ty and in­no­va­tion in the Arts. The acad­e­my will write, pro­duce and cir­cu­late au­dio-vi­su­al ma­te­r­i­al, plus pro­duce an an­nu­al mag­a­zine on the arts. The Sangam will stage pro­duc­tions, ex­hi­bi­tions, work­shops, fes­ti­vals, cul­tur­al ex­change pro­grammes, meet­ings, lec­tures, pan­el dis­cus­sions, class­es, cours­es, sem­i­nars, sym­posia and con­fer­ences.

It al­so pro­pos­es to es­tab­lish and main­tain a li­brary and archive of its own and oth­er re­lat­ed works, com­pris­ing au­dio and video tapes, news­pa­per clip­pings, pho­tographs, cos­tumes and props and oth­er rel­e­vant lit­er­a­ture.

In terms of fund­ing, the Kathak Kala Sangam pro­pos­es to raise rev­enues mem­ber­ship fees, fund-rais­ing projects, in­di­vid­ual grants and cor­po­rate do­na­tions, Gov­ern­ment sub­ven­tions and any oth­er legal­ly ap­proved source of fund­ing. Its im­me­di­ate pro­gramme of ac­tiv­i­ties in­cludes the es­tab­lish­ment of teach­ing class­es, through an es­tab­lished syl­labus with an­nu­al ex­ams in Kathak clas­si­cal dance, In­di­an folk dance and oth­er fine arts. Its artistes are cur­rent­ly prepar­ing for a for­eign con­cert. At the na­tion­al lev­el it is work­ing to present Kathak Ex­po­nent, Pan­dit Bir­ju Ma­haraj and a sev­en-mem­ber troupe from In­dia in ear­ly No­vem­ber.

Any­one in­ter­est­ed in join­ing the Kathak Kala Sangam or seek­ing more in­for­ma­tion can e-mail kathakkalasangam@hot­mail.com or call 624-5640 or 663-9513. New mem­bers are wel­come.