The Symposium will reflect on the past and future of design education for textile artisans in India. The symposium brings together an inspiring array of voices – artisan-design graduates, educators, mentors, and experts, alongside Judy Frater, the founder of India’s pioneering design education programme for artisans and  the Founder Director Emerita of Somaiya Kala Vidya, an institute of education for artisans

Moderator: Dr. Ritu Sethi, Craft Revival Trust

(Collaboration: Craft Revival Trust)
 

Curated by Prof. Himanshu Prabha Ray

The thief who stole my heart: Sacred Bronzes from Chola India
Illustrated lecture by Prof. Vidya Dehejia, Barbara Stoler Miller Professor Emerita of Indian Art, Columbia University, New York, and author of a range of books on the history of Indian art that connect the literary and visual arts in meaningful ways. Her recent publications include The Thief who Stole My Heart: The Material Life of Sacred Bronzes from Chola India, 855-1280 (2021); India: A Story through 100 Objects (2021); The Unfinished. Indian Stone Carvers at Work (2016) among others. Prof. Dehejia served as Chief Curator & Deputy Director, Freer & Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian in Washington DC, and as Acting Director in 2001-2002

Chair: Prof. Parul Dave Mukherji, Professor, School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University
 

The talk commences with an introduction to the sacred bronzes created by a master sculptor around the year 1000, and suggests that his inspiration may have been child-saint Sambandar’s opening hymn that hails Lord Shiva as “the thief who stole my heart.” Prof. Dehejia explores this sensuous imagery before moving to ask questions of this material that have not been asked before. Where did the Cholas acquire the copper required to cast the many temple bronzes that are solid heavy pieces of metal? What were the circumstances that permitted the creation of hundreds of temples and vast numbers of sacred bronzes despite the constant warfare that the Chola monarchs were engaged in?
 

Speaker: Mr. Bruno Maçães, Senior Advisor, Flint Global, columnist for the New Statesman, Member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and former Secretary of State for European Affairs, Portugal

Chair: Amb. Shivshankar Menon, former Foreign Secretary and former National Security Advisor
 

Shilpanatanam is a style of movement and choreographic vision conceived by Dr. Maya Kulkarni that departs from the structures of classical dance technique and conventional dramaturgy. Shilpanatanam taps into the wider world of literature and poetry.

Dance presentations by Mesma Belsare and Dr. Kaustavi Sarkar
 

Inaugural Session
Welcome Address: Amb. Shyam Saran, President, IIC
Address by Dr. Jeromin Zettlemeyer, Director, Bruegel

Keynote Address: Dr. S. Jaishankar, Minister for External Affairs, Govt. of India
Chair: Mr. Erkki Liikanen, Chairman, Board of Bruegel

ON 5 FEBRUARY AT 12:30
Valedictory Session
Valedictory Address by Shri Suman K. Bery, Vice Chairman, Niti Aayog

(Collaboration: Bruegel)
 

Bhavai of Gujarat: Traditional Theatre of India
(138 min; 2025; English)
Directed by Dr. Svetlana Ryzhakova who will introduce the film

Screening will be followed by a discussion with Dr. Ryzhakova, leading research fellow in the Institute of Ethnography and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow. She is a life member of the Indian Anthropological Society and a member of European Association of Social Anthropologists

Bhavai is one of the traditional folk theatres of India, performed in rural areas of northern and central Gujarat by troupes of artistes who belong to the Targala community. This ethnographic documentary is based on Dr. Ryzhakova’s long term research and field material collected from 2014 to 2023 in the villages and cities of Gujarat. The film is richly illustrated with interviews, conversations, songs and dance that make this documentary a unique tapestry of Bhavai theatre

(Collaboration: Russian House of Culture)
 

An exhibition of sculptures by Vijay Kowshik, senior artist

Vijay Kowshik transcends the familiar confines of his glasswork in this exhibition, venturing into the sculptural bronze vision to bring his creative spectre to life

Inauguration on Saturday, 1 February 2025 at 17:00 hrs

A World Within: Tales & Triumphs of Growing up with Autism
By Kanha Trehan

Discussants: Shri K.N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC; Ms Merry Barua, Founder Director, Action For Autism, National Centre for Autism, Activist, Trainer, Consultant; Dr. Rohit Verma, Senior Consultant, AIIMS, Delhi; Ms Neha Bhimwal, clinical psychologist, and Shri Kanha Trehan, author of the book

Chair: Dr. Shayama Chona, President, Tamana and former Principal, Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram
 

    India International Centre

Election to the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee for the two-year term April 2025 – March 2027
 

1.    Biennial Elections to two seats of elected Trustees (Individual and Institutional) and four Executive Committee Members (two in Individual category and two in Institutional category), for the period April 2025 to March 2027, are due to be held in March 2025.

2.    As specified under Rule 12 (a) of the Rules and Regulation of the Centre, one member of the Board of Trustees shall be elected by Institutional Member and the other shall be elected by Individual Members with voting rights. Rule 18 (d) provides that the term of office of the elected Members of the Board shall be two years (2 years). They shall not be eligible to contest for the office of the Trustees if such Member has already been elected twice in the past.

3.    Further, Rule 13 (a) specifies that two Members to the Executive Committee shall be elected by Individual Members with voting rights, and two members by Institutional members; one member to be elected by Corporate Foundation Members and Universities (including Deemed Universities and the second Member to be elected by Corporate Institutions other than Universities having voting rights.  Rule 18 (e) provides that the terms of office of the elected members shall be two years (2 years). They shall not be eligible to contest for the office of the Member of the Committee if such Member has already been elected twice in the past.

4.    As per the Election Bye-Laws the following will be placed in the IIC Website and in the Members’ Notice Board:

        (i)    Notice of the Election Schedule

       (ii)    List of Individual Members and Institutional Members of the Centre:

             a)    List of all Individual Members - (List A)
             b)    Corporate Foundation Members and Universities (including Deemed Universities)  - (List B-1)
             c)    Corporate Members (Other than Universities and  Deemed Universities) -  (List B-2)

                                             Kanwal Wali
        Secretary IIC

Encl:  As stated