Lack of funds, clear policy a road block for Punjab Sangeet Natak Akademi

Amritsar, June 15

The Punjab Sangeet Natak Akademi, the state wing of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, is the nodal agency in the state to carry out development and promotion for performing and folk art forms.

The academy, under president and noted theatre thespian Kewal Dhaliwal, has in the last few years initiated projects and workshops in collaboration with senior folk artistes to educate and preserve Punjabi performing folk culture. While the intent seems to be in the right place, the funds always stop short in supporting the artistes and their art. Fund crunch has always been a constant with the Punjab Sangeet Natak Akademi, as its annual budget requirements and the eventual financial grant by the Punjab Arts Council always leave a lot more gap to fill.

Dhaliwal, who is serving his second term as president of the akademi, has always been stressing on the need to draft a clear cultural policy to provide funds to agencies working to promote and develop arts in the state. “Every year, we send in our budget requirements to the council, which in turn evaluates it to approve the budgets. This year, we had sent our budget requirements and asked the council for funds of approx Rs 1.5 crore, but we do not expect to receive more than 15-20 lakh. Even the time of funding is not fixed, it takes around four to five months for funds to actually get to the akademi,” he shares.

He also says that there is a need to streamline the allotment of funds for cultural agencies, as currently, art and culture promotion doesn’t seem to be on the government agenda. “There seemed to be no vision as to the art and culture development and promotion in the state with previous governments. Even now, there is defined policy on how and on what criterion funds are allocated for cultural agencies.”

Despite the fund crunch, the Akademi has been organizing theatre and performing arts workshops, folk art concerts in Sangrur, Amritsar, Kharar and various rural belts of the state. The Akademi had also undertaken projects to document and revive folk arts forms in the state by creating a directory of all recognized folk artists in the state. It has been organizing folk music and instruments workshop for musicians and others. It also created digital archives of celebrated folk artistes Gurmeet Bawa and Amarjit Gurdaspuri. “We have created a digital library of folk art forms such as nakkals, kavishers and other folk dance and music forms. We also have documentaries featuring stalwarts of Punabi cultural movement such as Uma Gurbaksh Singh, Gurmeet Bawa and Norah Richards. These artistes are a part of our cultural history. We ought to preserve our folk heritage through such initiatives,” says Dhaliwal.