Art in the Smart City
Visioning Workshop 3rd and 4th November, 2017, at Hotel Sandy's Tower, Bhubaneswar
Bhubaneswar Art Collective (BAC) comprising Ila Panda Centre for Arts (IPCA), Utsha Foundation and Jatin Das Centre for Arts (JDCA) collaborated with BDA, BMC, and BUKC to hold the first ever Visioning Workshop on Art in the Smart City on 3rd and 4th November, 2017, at Hotel Sandy’s Tower, Bhubaneswar.
With public art gaining momentum in the smart city, BAC felt that this is the right time to effect collaboration between decision makers, art community and civil society in order to strategically leverage art and culture in the smart city through best sustainable practices. BAC proposed the workshop to Vice-Chairman BDA Dr. Krishan Kumar who readily supported the idea with his consent.
Towards this aim, BAC sponsored four delegates to the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in September 2017 so that our artists and planners could have an exposure to international practices in public art and culture. The inputs from this delegation along with inputs from experts in the field of urban planning and public art who participated in the visioning workshop will facilitate a Vision Document on Art in the Smart City which will be submitted to the Chief Minister, Odisha. The two-day workshop was attended by some of India’s foremost urban planners, artists, officials, intelligentsia and eminent citizens of Bhubaneswar who brainstormed in round table discussions to contribute to preparation of the Visioning Document on Art in the Smart City.
The two day workshop provided a comprehensive strategic framework for the city to adopt to leverage Bhubaneswar’s rich art and culture for its development. The workshop participants hailed from various walks of life including art, architecture, planning, literature, etc., and took an interdisciplinary approach to develop the framework with a significant amount of consensus.
Keynote speeches by Prof. Jyotindra Jain, renowned art and culture historian and museologist, V. Sunil, reputed adman, and founder trustee of the Kochi Biennale Foundation, eminent architect Jyoti Rath and Dr. Krishan Kumar, Vice Chairman, Bhubaneshwar Development Authority set the stage with the sharing of leading practices in art , design and architecture with the participants. The workshop was part of the Bhubaneswar Urban Lectures series organized by Bhubaneswar Urban Knowledge Centre (BUKC) and was generously sponsored by Ila Panda Centre for Arts and Builder’s Consortium.
