Centre assures help to make Madhubani ‘art capital’

MADHUBANI: Union textiles secretary Anant Kumar Singh has appreciated the Madhubani administration’s initiative to make the district the country’s ‘art capital’ and assured all possible assistance in this regard.
Madhubani DM Shirsat Kapil Ashok made a PowerPoint presentation in this regard before Singh and Union government’s development commissioner (handicrafts) Shant Manu on Monday.Later, Singh advised the DM to send a proposal for development of a Dilli Haat-like ‘Haat’ somewhere near Sakri on the east-west corridor. “Funds won’t be an issue,” he said.
Underlining the importance of Madhubani in the field of handicrafts, Manu said at least 48,238 of the 1,18,000 trained artisans in Bihar were from the district.
The DM’s PowerPoint presentation also proposed, apart from the ‘Haat’ to be developed at an estimated cost of Rs 3 crore, craft villages to be developed at an estimated cost of Rs 10 crore. It also mooted a common facility centre costing Rs 3 crore; a raw material depot at Rajnagar costing Rs 2 crore and a craft-based resource centre costing Rs 1 crore.
The DM also apprised the Union officials of the facelift given by local artisans to the government buildings in the district HQ town by drawing Madhubani paintings on the exteriors and, in some cases, even the interiors.
Later, Singh participated in an interactive session with students, mostly girls, at the Mithila Art Institute, a private initiative to nurture local artists free of cost. Its secretary, Dr Narendra Narain Singh ‘Nirala’, in his welcome address, talked about the milestones the institute crossed during the last 25 years of its existence.
Responding to students’ queries, the Union textile secretary advised the aspiring artists to preserve the distinct identity of the art form and not be swayed by the craze for fusion. He also visited Jitwarpur village which tops the list of proposed craft villages.
Pic caption: Union textile secretary Anant Kumar Singh (with raised hands) at Mithila Art Institute in Madhubani on Monday. In the background is a painting by French children taught Madhubani painting by a French lady Martin Lee Tooze, who recently spent about three months at the institute to learn the nuances of the art form