Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

Pic/Nimesh Dave

A brush with divinity

A worker paints statues of saints of Maharashtra ahead of the Ashadi Ekadashi festival, at Dahisar West on Monday.

For the kids, by the kids

Current Conservation (CC) is a magazine that, as the name suggests, features articles on the issue of conservation, tackled through a scientific lens. They also have an annual supplement called Current Conservation Kids, which is aimed at readers between the ages of six and 14. The editors have now put out an open call for submissions for this supplement, with different categories such as A Day in the Life, which will have entries that detail the daily lives of a specific creature, tree or habitat; Storytelling, which entails fiction pieces of mythology or nature; and Fun Facts, which will have a visual narrative. "CC rests on three pillars - conservation science, storytelling, and a visual narrative. When we receive an article, we ask: is it based on sound science? Does it tell a good story? Is it imaginative? We love an engaging narrative, simple jargon-free language, and sharp observations," shared managing editor and art editor Manini Bansal (in pic). To know more, visit currentconservation.org.

Lens on culture

Here's good news for fans of world cinema. Culture Cinema 2021 is an ongoing film festival supported by UNESCO, which celebrates movies from across the globe, featuring 75 entries from 21 countries, selected by a jury that consists of Indian actor Ramesh Tekwani, filmmaker Ritesh Taksande and director Vinod Ganatra, among others. Some of the selected films include No Heaven for Gunga Din (Iran, in pic) that follows the story of a best-selling book's publication; Nightingales in Berlin (Finland), which is about a music band; and Sir CV Raman (India), which follows the life of the famous scientist. The programming also includes virtual workshops and panel discussions, and the movies are available for viewing on moviesaints.com till July 21. Its festival director Praveen Nagda told us, "Culture has the power to bring humanity closer, and that seems to have been demonstrated here via the enthusiastic participation of filmmakers from all over the world."

Theatre artistes get a leg-up

Selected participants will get to use Harkat Studios' space for 14 days

Harkat Studios in Andheri is lending theatre artistes a helping hand at a time when they are struggling during the pandemic. They have started a micro-residency programme, as part of which selected artistes and theatre groups will be given the studio's space to work on a semi-developed idea, which will be staged for a private audience at the end of the period. "The inspiration for this idea came from something that Sunil Shanbag had done with Tamaasha Theatre some years ago," Harkat co-founder Karan Talwar told this diarist.

Art gets mapped

An Art Walks Mumbai event before the pandemic hit last year

Recognising that many public artworks had been devoured by the busy city landscape over the years, Art Walks Mumbai (AWM) founders Alisha Sadikot and Nishita Zachariah launched the Public Art Map Project, a Google-based map that works as a kind of database or repository of all unnoticed or often forgotten public artworks, murals and sculptures. "The idea is to catalogue places or artworks that are in the public realm but are fast disappearing," shared AWM co-founder, Zachariah. The map invites submissions from citizens and currently has around 21 such works, like the St+art India's Worli Diary project, the Dabbawala Statue at Tardeo and other sites across the city. To check out this initiative, visit @artwalksmumbai on Instagram.

Palate of poetry

Online poetry platform The Alipore Post has joined hands with Museum of Arts and Photography in Bengaluru for an exhibition that marries art with food poetry. It features poems that are themed on food, and which will add a layer to the artworks that are on display. "There is one poem on chillies for instance, which was born out of a specific artwork on the same subject. We wanted to bring out how food has played a vital part in people's lives during the pandemic," shared The Alipore Post founder Rohini Kejriwal.