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 shared a number of issues which are related to IP rights. According to the Bauls present at the workshop, they have not reached that stage of philosophy, lifestyle or meditation to compose songs. Bauls shared that based on the Gharana the Bauls wear different dresses like white, saffron and black with colorful patchworks. They also shared the stories about how they got introduced to the world of Baul music. The HIPAMS team covered a wide range of topics from attribution and acknowledgement of artists while posting or publishing any photo, video or research work to the importance of creating digital stories for the promotion of the art form and the artists. A number of training on social media, digital storytelling etc. has been planned. It was also planned to use signage for the visitors for proper acknowledgement of artists and to use the appropriate hashtags.
Explaining the ways of marketing
Artists sharing their journey
The whole group of artists actively participated in the discussion
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.
