Shillong, Oct 31: The four days “Shillong Creative Arts, Literature and Music Festival-2012” kicked off Wednesday with Meghalaya Governor RS Mooshahary and Chief Minister Mukul Sangma saying that Meghalaya and other north eastern states are rich in arts, culture, literatures and music which needs to be properly harnessed and showcase before the world.
Inaugurating the festival which will also see the participation of celebrated author Chetan Bhagat and top notch editor and writer MJ Akbar, Mooshahary called Meghalaya and the north eastern region a “treasure-house” in term of arts, culture, literature and music. He, however, lamented that because of absence of proper platform, the region suffers from inadequate exposure.
Speaking about government initiates to promote arts, Mooshahary said, “In this context, government is trying to come up with such initiatives to ensure that such talents of the state gets adequate exposure and advancement in the field of literary, music and other creative arts.”
Elaborating on the rich potential the region has in this filed, Mooshahary said many young talents have come up to compete at the national and international platform even as he pointed to the latest India Got Talent-4 finalist from Shillong Toshan Nongbet. He said, “I wish he comes out successful in this competition as after Shillong Chamber Choir (SCC) who had now got a global recognition after they won the last India’s Got Talent competition, Toshan is another talented artist that Meghalaya is proud of.”
Speaking about the festival, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said, “Such initiative is the testimony of a success of ideas of convergence of reaching out to people to develop “partnership”.” He informed that the government desires to ensure that proper platform is being provided to all those young hidden talents making them productive for the well being of the state.”
According to Sangma, the festival provides ample opportunities for the talented youths of the state. He said, “We are looking forward that such festival is held annually and see that it make its mark at the national as well as international level utilizing ideas in a productive way.”
Sangma informed that substantial amount of funds have been given to the arts and culture department to conduct various programmes for development and promotion of young talents in the state. He said the government is also contemplating to introduce summer and winter camps for students to ensure that their leisure times do not go wasted.
The four day event will include a Mega Book Fair organised by the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan under the State Education Mission, an Art Gallery organized by the RITI Academy, the “Express Yourself“ stage, book launches, panel discussions, interactions and performances, motivational sessions and a host of other events organized by The Sahaki Society.
