ARTS ACRE
Kolkata, West Bengal – 2014:
Arts Acre was started by eminent Indian artist, Shuvaprasanna, as an artist village on the outskirts of Kolkata in 1983. The centre was inaugurated by Nobel Laureate, Gunter Grass and was a utopian space for artists to work, hold workshops and regularly interact with eminent personalities from the fields of literature, art and culture. The space however was shut down a decade later due to unavoidable circumstances.
In 2007, Suvaprasanna started work to revive Arts Acre. He wanted to establish a centre of creativity that would not only be a hub for fine arts but also include performing arts and other cultural activities in its fold. Born out of this vision is the Arts Acre campus, an idyllic art haven spread over 4.5 acres in Kolkata’s satellite city- Rajarhat, New Town. This prominent cultural space was inaugurated in 2014 and comprises of the Arts Acre Foundation, the Museum of Bengal Modern Art and the International Centre for Creativity and Cultural Vision. The campus includes a state-of-the-art auditorium, an art conservation laboratory and four gallery spaces.
Arts Acre aims to provide a platform for emerging artists to hone their artistic vision and find their own artistic voices. It regularly conducts workshops and classes on printmaking, ceramics, painting, and sculpture; it also runs an Arts appreciation course twice a year. The centre has also had international artists from Brazil, Bangladesh, Germany, and Korea, conduct workshops, exhibit and perform here.
Arts Acre’s Artist in Residence program has seen participation over the last few years by eminent artists such as- Laxma Goud, RM Palaniappan, and PR Daroz. The residency invites artists to work and conduct workshops over a period of one-two weeks.
Text Courtesy : Space118
Image Courtesy : Arts Acre