Focus: GS-I Art and Culture, Prelims
Why in news?
To preserve & promote various forms of folk art and culture of the tribals throughout the country including West Bengal, the Government of India has set up seven Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCCs) with headquarters at:
- Patiala
- Nagpur
- Udaipur
- Prayagraj
- Kolkata
- Dimapur and
- Thanjavur
Details:
Sahitya Akademi, an autonomous organization under Ministry of Culture, encourages the preservation and promotion of languages, especially the unrecognized and tribal languages.
No funds are provided directly to States/UTs. However, annual grant-in-aid is provided to all the ZCCs for organizing various cultural activities and programmes in their member States including West Bengal.
Schemes being implemented by Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCCs)
- Award to Young Talented Artists: The Scheme “Young Talented Artists” is carried out to encourage and recognize the young talents especially in the field of rare art forms.
- Guru Shishya Parampara: This scheme envisages transmitting our valued traditions to the coming generations. Disciples are trained under veterans in art forms which are rare and vanishing. Rare and vanishing art forms of the region are identified and eminent exponents are selected to carry out the training programmes in ‘Gurukula’ tradition.
- Theatre Rejuvenation: To promote theatre activities including stage shows and Production oriented workshops, etc.
- Research & Documentation: To preserve promote and propagate vanishing visual and performing art forms including folk, tribal and classical in the field of music, dance, theatre, literature, fine arts etc. in print/ audio – visual media.
- Shilpgram: To promote folk and tribal art and crafts of the zone
- Octave: To promote and propagate the rich cultural heritage of North East region comprising of eight States namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura to the rest of India.
- National Cultural Exchange Programme (NCEP): It can be termed as the lifeline of the Zonal Cultural Centers. Under this scheme, various festivals of performing arts, exhibitions, yatras etc are organized in member States.
NCEP
- Under the National Cultural Exchange Programme (NCEP) funded by the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India artistes from the Zone showcase their talent in other parts of the country.
- The main aim of this scheme is exchange of artistes, musicians, performers and sculptors etc. between different regions with in the country for the promotion of rich cultural heritage of India. This scheme is benefiting a large number of folk artistes, musicians, artisans etc.
