Reviving local art: Cooch Behar hosts 3-day folk artistes’ workshop

Cooch Behar: To emphasise the fading local art culture, a three-day folk artist workshop has been organised in Cooch Behar on the initiative of the state government and the Chief Minister. The Cooch Behar district administration and district Information and Cultural department initiated this workshop at the Cooch Behar Panchayat Training and Resource Centre on Tuesday.

The workshop is set to run till Thursday. The opening ceremony saw the distinguished guests inaugurating the event by lighting the lamp. Notable attendees included Cooch Behar Zilla Parishad Sabhadhipati Sumita Barman, North Bengal Development Council Chairman Rabindranath Ghosh, Cooch Behar District Magistrate Pawan Kadian, District Police Superintendent Sumit Kumar, Zilla Parishad Sahakari Sabhadhipati Abdul Jalil Ahmed, and North Bengal State Transport Corporation’s Chairman Partha Pratim Roy.

About 50 artists will actively participate in this comprehensive three-day workshop. They will receive specialised training focusing on the local folk culture. The administration has arranged all accommodations for their three-day stay. The primary objective of this workshop is to revive the vanishing local folk music genres such as ‘Bhawaiya,’ ‘Dhutra,’ ‘Saitol,’ and others.

Commenting on the significance of the workshop, Cooch Behar District Magistrate Pawan Kadian stated: “Initiated by the Chief Minister, this district-level workshop serves as a platform for in-depth discussions on strategies to spotlight the local culture. Subsequently, these insights will be utilised to promote it in various ways.”

Ganesh Chandra Barman, one of the artists, said: “This workshop holds the potential to resurrect our forgotten ‘Bhawaiya,’ ‘Dhutra,’ and all our folk songs. We wholeheartedly applaud this initiative by the state government.”