South Asian arts organisation Subrang Arts has been awarded £23,661 by Arts Council England to deliver creative activities that will teach Croydon school children and local community groups about the rich cultural heritage of India. The project, called Kalasetu, will be part of Croydon’s London Borough of Culture celebrations and the funding has come through our National Lottery Project Grants programme.
Subrang Arts will be teaming up with internationally renowned arts organisation Kinetika, who are an Arts Council England National Portfolio organisation, to deliver the project which will have a focus on Batik silk painting – the art of decorating cloth using hot wax and dye.
In workshops led by the two organisations that will kick off in April, pupils from Norbury Manor Girls School in Croydon will research creative and cultural Indian traditions – including dance, design and also create 25 beautiful silk flags and 25 silk scarves. The silk flags and scarves will be used by Subrang Arts at some of This is Croydon – The Mayor’s London Borough of Culture 2023’s flagship events, such as the Croydon Mela in Wandle Park on 16 July 2023, the Croydon Carnival 2023, as well as other events throughout the celebratory year.
Local community groups will also take part in workshops and will create a costume for an installation of a model Indian Queen, named ‘Mother India’, which will be a visually stunning spectacle at Croydon Mela. Later these highly decorative hand painted silk scrolls will be used for outdoor site decoration and hung indoors as banners to mark Borough of Culture.
National Lottery Project Grants is the Arts Council’s open access programme for arts, museums and libraries projects. The fund supports thousands of individual artists, community and cultural organisations thanks to National Lottery investment. National Lottery players raise over £30 million for good causes each week, funding arts, heritage, sports, voluntary and charity projects around the UK. Over £43 billion has been raised for Good Causes since the National Lottery began in 1994.
Tonya Nelson, Area Director, London, Arts Council England, said: “Croydon’s year as The Mayor’s London Borough of Culture is a fantastic celebration of the creativity which is at the heart of the flourishing and multi-cultural South London borough. Thanks to National Lottery players, the Arts Council is pleased to support Subrang Arts’ Indian arts project which will form part of the celebrations. It will ensure that local people across a range of ages and backgrounds can come together, get creative, and celebrate the different people, backgrounds and heritages that are integral to Croydon’s vibrancy.”
Lata Desai, of Subrang Arts said: “I am absolutely delighted that the Arts Council is supporting this project which will engage communities together and help us deliver the vision set out in Let’s Create. The project will reflect the Borough’s unique diversity, diverse communities, rich heritage and cultural expressions.”
