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Culture as an Influencer

Role of Social Media Influencers in Promoting Cultural Products

by Anindita Patra

Today social media platforms have become an important tool to promote products and services. Social media marketing is inexpensive when compared to the traditional ways of advertisement, reaches out to a wider audience and is fast in its response. By using social media, brands have the chance to create a strong media presence by interacting with customers online, this can...

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Empowering heritage artists through digital storytelling and awareness of intellectual property rights

by Diego Rinallo, Kedge Business School

In the HIPAMS India project, we co-created heritage-sensitive intellectual property and marketing strategies with folk artists from three communities in West Bengal. These artists and their cultural heritage were in the past promoted by NGOs and government agencies, but were rarely the protagonists of their own activities. With the HIPAMS project, we attempted to empower artists with various...

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Project Journey

The HIPAMS project began in 2018 with the Patachitra artist community of Pingla, Chau Dancers and Mask Makers of Purulia and Baull Fakiri musicians of Bengal. The aim of the project was to research how marketing and intellectual property can help tradition bearers to harness their intangible cultural heritage to contribute to sustainable livelihoods. The goal was to develop Heritage Sensitive Intellectual Property and Marketing...

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Final culmination workshop with Chau dancers

February 2021

A final culmination workshop was organized with the Chau dancers on 5 Feb, 2021 at Maldih, Balarampur to share the outcomes of the HIPAMS project with the larger community, to listen the experience of the artists and to identify the future course of action. Around 37 artists including 5 women warmly participated in the workshop and collectively celebrated the overall progress they made with this project. The Chau Dancers presented their new production – “Mukosh Khola Mukh”...

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Final culmination workshop with Chau maskmakers

February 2021

41 Chau maskmakers including 3 women participated in the final culmination workshop at artists’ village Charida on 5 Feb, 2021. The objective of this workshop was to share the outcomes of the HIPAMS project with the larger community, to listen the experience of the artists and to identify the future course of action for the community. The artists discussed how the social media training has helped them cope with the pandemic by sharing products on social media platforms opening up new...

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Final culmination workshop with Bauls and Fakirs

January 2021

A final culmination workshop was organized with the Bauls and Fakirs on 30 Jan, 2021 at Baul ashram at Guskara to share the outcomes of the HIPAMS project with the larger community, to listen the experience of the artists and to identify the future course of action. Around 47 artists including 9 women warmly participated in the workshop and collectively celebrated the overall progress they made with this project.

They discussed the present ecosystem for skill transmission and...

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Final culmination workshop with Patuas

January 2021

A final culmination workshop was organized with the Patuas on 22 Jan, 2021 at Naya, Pingla to share the outcomes of the HIPAMS project with the larger community, to listen the experience of the artists and to identify the future course of action. Around 40 Patuas including 18 women warmly participated in the workshop and collectively celebrated the overall progress they made with this project.

The artists shared how the social media trainings have helped them to cope with the pandemic...

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Online webinar on Promoting Heritage Products and Cultural Tourism

Explore the role of geographical indications in promoting heritage products.

The webinar on 3 February, 2021 titled, ‘Promoting heritage products and cultural tourism’ focused on the role of geographical indications. Under the project, ‘Celebrating Local Stewardship in a Global Market: Community Heritage, Intellectual Property Protection and Sustainable Development in India’, trying to connect role of GI to promotion of crafts and cultural tourism has been a very...

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Online webinar on IP, ICH and Sustainable Development

Know about the HIPAMS Toolkit on planning for sustainable development through ICH.

On 2 February, 2021 a webinar on Intangible Cultural Heritage, Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development was conducted under the HIPAMS project. The project involved the co-creation of HIPAMS (Heritage-sensitive Intellectual Property and Marketing Strategies) with Patachitra painters, Baul-Fakirs, Chau dancers and mask makers for promoting their traditional products and performances. An integral...

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Online symposium on Community Heritage, Marketing and IP protection

Understand the heritage-sensitive IP and marketing approaches for traditional artists.

We are organising an online symposium with media, cultural studies, design, marketing, business  and law schools on community heritage, marketing and IP protection on February 1, 2021 between 3 pm to 5 pm.
The aim is to develop greater sensitivity to protection of IP rights of the traditional artists in contemporary creative outputs produced as collaborative efforts of both the urban...

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Through a new lens: Stepping into the real world of dance as heritage

by Kavya Iyer Ramalingam

Here, I share some reflections based on my work as a student intern with Charlotte Waelde and Harriet Deacon on the HIPAMS India project, which investigates how developing ‘heritage-sensitive’ IP protection strategies can give communities greater control over the commercialisation of their heritage while contributing to its safeguarding and on-going...

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Roundtable on Ethical Approaches for Working with Traditional artists

Artists, entrepreneurs & stakeholders discussed the ethical ways of working with ICH communities.

A discussion on working together for the sustainability of intangible cultural heritage through an exploration of the symbiotic relationship between traditional communities and creative industry stakeholders was held on 6th Oct, 2020. The online discussion was joined by stakeholders like publications, galleries, art houses, film makers, festival organizers, cultural spaces,...

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Workshop on a Toolkit for Heritage-Sensitive Commercialization

Online workshop for sharing a toolkit with experts and NGOs working with ICH  communities.

Currently, the ICH communities all over the world face many challenges like over-commercialization, the violation of the intellectual property rights of traditional artists, misappropriation of ICH etc. However, there is lack of practical guidance on how to address these issues, think about the relationship between ICH and the market, and what practical steps communities and other stakeholders...

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Faces Behind the Masks: Chau Production on Recognition of Artists

New Chau production on recognition of Chau dancers who remain unknow behind masks.

Chau dancers have always faced the problem of recognition and attribution. We enjoy the Chau performances but seldom acknowledge the person, the performer behind the elaborate mask who gives life to the character he plays. Moreover, Chau dance is predominantly practiced by the male members of the community and women have only very recently started taking part in Chau performances that too after...

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Sustainable development and Intellectual Property Rights: The case of Patachitra and GI

by Benedetta Ubertazzi

‘Green GI’ and Sustainable Development

 Intellectual property rights (‘IPRs’), particularly geographical indications (‘GIs’), can be an excellent tool for encouraging environmentally friendly practices. The emergence of “Green GIs”, which are both environmentally friendly and compatible with the maintenance of biodiversity and landscape, reflects the utility of using IPRs on traditionally produced goods. These GIs...

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International Webinar on Traditional Art in Contemporary Times

A webinar on contribution of ICH on creative economy and stakeholders roles.

Banglanatak dot com in collaboration with British Council hosted an international webinar titled “Traditional Art in Contemporary Times” on 4th September, 2020. This international transcontinental webinar aspired to look at how traditional art is ever evolving and also explore how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting living heritage worldwide. The theme of the webinar was the contribution of...

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Cultural Industry and the Pandemic: Needs and Challenges

 by Anindita Patra

In these unstable and uncertain times, we need to look to the things that unite us – the things that show us the world in all of its variations – and for that, we need artists” – Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General.

We turn to art when we are joyful: we turn to art when we grieve. And in times of uncertainty and despair, we turn to art again for sustaining our hopes. This is especially true of now when the...

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Traditional art goes digital in times of crisis

by Anindita Patra

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live” –Joan Didion

Stories of hope, stories of a brighter tomorrow is what keeps us going especially during these times when the entire world is copped up in their respective homes. Art is a great storyteller, art speaks of yesterday, art speaks of today and art speaks of tomorrow. Art connects people in different ways, that maybe be said metaphorically but digital media connects people literally. And what...

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Patachitra on Intellectual Property and GI

February 2020

The Patuas of Pingla are known for their skill of beautiful representation of their thoughts on paper. After an initial sensitization and mobilization session on intellectual property, attribution, GI and Craftmark with the Patachitra  artists of Pingla, two senior artists- Swarna Chitrakar and Monu Chitrakar have put their learning on paper that is they have developed Patachitras on it. They have done so to sensitize others regarding the same.

Swarna’s Patachitra on intellectual...

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Festival Notice on Attribution and Hashtags

One of the many efforts of ours has been to create awareness among the people and stakeholders regarding the art forms- Patachitra, Chau and Baul  and the attribution of the artists. The village festivals attract a huge crowd and we thought it to be the best way to sensitize a large number of people within a short span.  Bilingual signage were developed and put up during the POT Maya (Patachitra Festival held ay Pingla), Chau Jhumur Utsav (held at Balarampur) and Baul Fakiri Utsav (held at...

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Digital Storytelling for heritage promotion

January 2020

Digital storytelling is a relatively new term which describes the  practice of everyday people who use digital tools to tell their ‘story’. Digital stories often present in compelling and emotionally engaging formats, and can be interactive. The most important characteristics of a digital story are that it no longer conforms to the traditional conventions of storytelling because it is capable of combining still imagery, moving imagery, sound, and text, as well as  contain...

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Packaging

February 2020

Packaging is the perfect vehicle for strengthening a brand’s identity. By using packaging to tell a story, brands aim to create an association that is relevant while capturing their heritage, however old or young that may be. Similarly in the case of Patachitra and Chau Mask the brand building with packaging as one of the many tools is what we undertook.

Eco-friendly packaging was developed for different products like sarees, t-shirts coasters, kettles with Patachitra motif. The...

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Art Codes

January 2020

At the HIPAMS workshops the participating community artists stated that film and documentary makers, amateur and professional photographers often visit the artists’ villages to record their process of art making, performances and using it in their creative endeavour. The researchers or journalists often visit their villages to interview the artists about the art tradition, daily lives to publish papers, books or news reports. Sometimes those feature or documentary films are made for...

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Digital storytelling workshop with Bauls & Fakirs, 25th February and 26th February, 2020

February 2020

A two day digital storytelling workshop was held with around 22 Bauls on the 25th and 26th February, 2020 at Tepantar. The workshop focused on different aspects of digital storytelling like:

  • Objective of digital storytelling
  • What is digital storytelling
  • Role of digital storytelling in promotion of Baul music
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Social media workshops with Chau dancers & mask makers, 13-14 December, 2019

December 2019

Social media workshops with 12 Purulia Chau dancers and 8 Chau mask makers of Purulia were organized. The participants learnt how to post photos in Facebook and write appropriate and relevant text to promote their art form. The concept of hashtags was discussed and how to use suitable hashtags was shown with example. Most of the participants did their own post in their respective community page in Facebook. Some participants have created their account in Instagram to share their...

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Digital storytelling workshops with Patachitra artists & Chau dancers, January, 2020

January 2020

Digital storytelling workshops were organized in January with 16 Bengal Patachitra artists and 15 Purulia Chau artists. Initially the importance of digital stories to promote art forms was discussed and some of the sample digital stories were shown to the artists. The through story-circle the participants came up with their own stories most of which are about their art

practice, village, daily life, festival etc. After that, they did...

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Codes, Codes, Codes

by Charlotte Waelde

The idea of using ‘codes’ to help the Patachitra, Chau and BaulFakiri communities when engaging with cultural organisations – such as film makers, distributors and gallery owners – emerged during the HIPAMS process in 2019.  Two main issues underpinned the view that these could be a useful tool.  The first, which concerns intellectual property (IP) protection (particularly copyright) for outputs incorporating intangible heritage skills, has a...

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Heritage-sensitive Intellectual Property and Marketing Strategy development workshops with the Patachitra, Chau and Baul artists

by Anindita Patra

The month of September was a month of learning, interaction and sharing of stories by the rural artists practising Patachitra, Chau and Baul.
Heritage-sensitive Intellectual Property and Marketing Strategy development workshops were held with the Patachitra artists of Pingla, Bauls and Fakirs of Bengal, Chau artists of Purulia and Mayurbhanj. The group had a balanced mix of both young artists as well as senior Gurus.
The workshops spanning over...

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Workshop with Baul Fakirs, Gurusaday Museum, Kolkata

September 2019

Workshop with Baul Fakirs

The workshop was organized with a group of 11 artists who comes from different districts of West Bengal. The group had a balanced mix of both young musicians as well as senior Gurus. A quick survey at the beginning revealed that although majority of the artists heard about social media and other digital communication tools only few of them have ever used it. Artists did not know much about intellectual property rights although they...

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Workshop with Chau dancers of Purulia & Myurbhanj and Chau mask makers of Charida

September 2019

Gurusaday Museum, Kolkata

Total 18 artists participated in the workshop. Most of them were aware about the digital platforms but only few of them have used for promotion for their art form. In the workshop artists were made aware of their IP rights. The importance of collective marketing was presented by the HIPAMS team citing various practical examples. Artists were made aware of digital storytelling as a powerful tool for promoting the traditional art...

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Workshop with Patachitra artists, Pingla, Paschim Medinipur

September 2019

At the beginning, the group of artists were briefed about the purpose of the workshop. The artists shared different kind of issues they face at present like – lack of acknowledgement by the photographers, videographers and other people like researchers who take photographs and publish in various platforms including social media. Artists were made aware by the HIPAMS team about the necessity of formal agreement. The importance of collective market to protect...

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Young heritage entrepreneurs learning from experienced small business owners in Kyrgyzstan

by Harriet Deacon

In October 2019, I joined ten young heritage entrepreneurs and colleagues from CACSARC-kg, a NGO based in Kyrgyzstan, on a six-day field trip between Bishkek and Issyk Kul. It was organised under a two-year Read More

Critical Analysis and Comparison of Banarasi Sari and Patachitra GI

by Benedetta Ubertazzi

Banarasi Sari

Banarasi Sari is a centuries old artisanal form of embroidered, hand-woven silk fabrics originating in Banaras, India. The community of weavers is divided into several categories, including own-workers, loomless weavers, job-work weavers and master-weavers. The Banarasi community has faced competition from weaving centres in India and China, as well as those who have been passing off machine fabrics as handmade. In order to...

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POT Maya

November 2019

The community artists organise POT Maya festival at Naya, Pingla, Paschim Medinipur on November 15 – 17, 2019.

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Cultural appropriation

by Charlotte Waelde

What do Kim Kardashian and the Kimono; the Black Panther movie and Ghanaian kente designs; and Gordon Ramsay’s London restaurant,Lucky Cat,have in common?

The answer is that they have all provoked intense debate around cultural appropriation. Fashion, food, music, film, personal attire, sacred rituals among others have all been the subject of claim and counter claim around cultural appropriation.  But how is cultural appropriation distinguished...

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Invocation of rain by appeasing the Lord

by Anindita Patra

Gajan or Shiv Gajan is an important festival rather an imperative part of the lives of people in the Rarh  region of Bengal. This area being an agricultural belt every festival or celebration is associated with cultivation. The agriculture of the region is dependent on rainfall which is erratic.  In order to appease the gods and goddesses of rain, people offer songs and dance in traditional festivities.

During the summer...

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Heritage and commercialization: an interdisciplinary conversation at the beginning of HIPAMS

by HIPAMS Team

At the end of this video by Valdimar Hafstein, about the complexities of ownership claims to the tune made famous by Simon and Garfunkel as ‘El Condor Pasa’, Hafstein asks the question, ‘When is protecting heritage not a form of dispossession?’ He challenges us all to find a better way forward in heritage management.

In our three-year British Academy-funded project in India, we bring together people...

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Pingla

December 2018

The team walked around the Patachitra artists’ village, interacted with the artists informally and saw their scroll paintings, listened to the songs, visited the community museum to know about the different types of Patachitra, stories and the process of art making along with tools. Later they held the workshop in the Folk Art Centre with a group of 15 participants to learn more deeply about their heritage attributes, change of context and the art making,...

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Rairangpur

December 2018

Around 30 rural artists both senior gurus and junior artists from the adjacent villages assembled for the workshop at the stage of Bamanghati Chau Nrutya Pratishthan in Rairangpur. The workshop started with a performance of Mayurbhanj Chau. Later the Gurus shared how the age-old dance form originated with the help of royal patronization and how it associated with the local festivals. The research team also enquired about current market, performing opportunities,...

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Raghurajpur

December 2018

The team reached the heritage village in the morning and walked around to acquaint themselves with the Patachitra tradition and the other art forms which are also practiced in Raghurajpur. Around 25 participants including senior, junior and women artists were present in the library room of the village to share the historical background of their art, associated stories, current market and challenges with the research team. A 40-years old video footage of the village...

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First Reflections

February 2019

by Charlotte Waelde

The first five months of our project, ‘Celebrating local stewardship in a global market: community heritage, intellectual property protection and sustainable development in India’ have been both hard work and very rewarding. Because of the strong commitment of every member of the team, we have managed in this relatively short space of time to achieve a great deal.

Bringing together different academic disciplines in a research project is always a...

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Mobilization workshop at Rairangpur

November 2018

Contact Base team visited Rairangpur between 22 – 24 November, 2018 to interact with the communities who practise Mayurbhanj Chau dance, the present condition of the artist community, performing opportunities and challenges. The team met with the artists’ groups in their villages and also held meeting at Rairangpur town to share information about the HIPAMS research project. The artists understood the goal of the project and gave their consent to...

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Art of Natural Colours

by Anindita Patra

Raghurajpur, a small village on the banks of the river Bhargabi near Puri, is a haven of Pattachitra painting and has attracted the attention of the world as a Heritage village. The economic, social and cultural life of this village revolves around arts and crafts with at least one member from almost every family being involved in some form of art. There is an informal division of work in the family and every member is engaged in doing something or the other...

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Nimdih

December 2018

The workshop at Nimdih, Purulia was also started with a short presentation of Chau dance and Natua dance which is the predecessor of Chau. Around 20 artists including senior gurus and junior artists were present at the workshop. They shared how the dance form along with its masks, costumes have evolved with time. The artists stated that the market has changed and they improvised the stories and the steps. The Chau mask makers from Charida, Purulia were also present...

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Tepantar

December 2018

Around 25 senior, junior and women Bauls and Fakirs mostly from Nadia and Birbhum and also from Murshidabad and Bardhaman were present in theatre village Tepantar, Bardhaman. The workshop began with Baul songs that very well represented the diversity and style of rendition that exists among different districts. The songs were part of a journey of the Bauls and their songs through different period and places presented by founder director of Contact Base Amitava...

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Santiniketan

December 2018

On the last day of the trip, the team visited Santiniketan, the place famous for Ashrama established by poet Rabindranath Tagore, and the Visva Bharati university, met with the faculty members from Fine Arts and Art History. The team also interacted about IP rights and relationship of traditional artists and fine art students with a group of students who were participating in a Chau mask making workshop. The team walked around the entire campus including the Murals...

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Mobilization workshop at Raghurajpur

November 2018

The first visit to Raghurajpur, the village of Odisha Pattachitra artists, was made between 8 – 10 November, 2018 to know about the tradition, population and geographical distribution of the community, the process of art making, current market and channels of distribution and challenges faced by the community. Another key purpose of this visit was to the village and mapping families  and documenting colour making process for the Patachitra with the active...

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This research project, Heritage Sensitive Intellectual Property and Marketing strategies: India (HIPAMS - INDIA), is funded by the British Academy's Sustainable Development Programme, supported under the UK Government's Global Challenges Research Fund 2018-2021.