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An online resource of arts, culture and heritage, Sahapedia works closely with corporate entities so that one can not just read or browse through information galleries but also take virtual walks through historic sites and natural spaces.
Sahapedia is also closely working with the government to make art and heritage of the country more accessible to people. Moneycontrol spoke to Vaibhav Chauhan, Secretary, Sahapedia, on how the eco system works.
Edited excerpts:
Q: You work closely with state governments and ministries in India to document and share India’s cultural heritage. Tell us a little about your archives.
A: Sahapedia has established partnerships and collaborated with a number of key cultural institutions and organisations. These include national, South Asian, and international institutions including the Ministry of Culture, Government of India; Archaeological Survey of India (ASI); National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA); National School of Drama (NSD); Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla; St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Centre (ICHCAP), Seoul; and the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
These institutions have made available their information repositories for Sahapedia’s heritage education activities, welcomed Sahapedia’s endeavours to archive and curate their material, and supported Sahapedia in projects of common interest, both for the archiving of knowledge and for educational outreach.
Q: What are the India Heritage Walks all about? Who are the sponsors and how much have they invested in the initiative?
A: Since the inception of India Heritage Walks programme in November 2016, Sahapedia has widely reached out to 44 cities across India, forming a network of over 100 qualified walk leaders, and exploring diverse themes.
Through this effort, it seeks to build an ecosystem wherein every individual, in metros, and cities get an opportunity to learn, appreciate and propagate India's unique heritage and culture. Sahapedia’s aim is to make heritage engagement programmes more holistic and inclusive.
With reference to the heritage walks, Sahapedia now aims at targeting different user groups, such as children from disadvantaged backgrounds and disabled individuals, by curating tailor-made engagement programmes.
These initiatives have the benefit of highlighting these issues to institutions and indicating the need to alter heritage spaces into more inclusive spaces. Sahapedia can also provide guidelines to make museums and heritage spaces more accessible to all.
Our main sponsors are TCS Foundation and Axis Bank Foundation. This is a first-of-its-kind collaboration for the promotion of cultural heritage.
In FY17, CSR spends towards national heritage have gone up by almost 200 per cent upto Rs 202 crore as compared to FY15.
Q: Do you have corporates investing in your initiative? Could you name some of them?
A: We are lucky to have the assistance of our supporters. First and foremost, I would like to mention the TCS Foundation, who has supported Sahapedia right from its inception.
Other funders are Axis Bank Foundation, Infosys Foundation, Yes Arts and Culture and IndusInd Bank.
Q: What is the kind of response you have seen in the area? Any interesting anecdote?
A: Mostly, institutions write to us for help with digitization. We have had instances when individuals wanted us to help with their personal archives. Museums and archives in our country are in dire need of expertise and funds.
I see this as a very big area of collaboration between the cultural institutions and corporates. There is a lot of novelty for the corporates in this space, so before we set up new libraries, museums and archives, we should really think about preserving the existing ones.
Q: Tell us a little about your plans ahead. Do you plan to start digital selling of art soon?
A: Sahapedia seeks to continue to nurture, interpret and develop cultural resources, using digital media, for the present as well as the future stakeholders of culture.
Sahapedia aims to become more effective and accessible for different users using different tools. The Sahapedia website is being revamped and Sahapedia 1.5 is being launched in December 2018.
The content in Sahapedia is being diversified to serve the needs of different users.
Short-format content using both new and existing content is being curated. Technology that supports automated republication is being developed for the website. This will make republishing Sahapedia’s content easy.
Sahapedia aspires to continue to build information infrastructure on cultural heritage while building networks and creating an inclusive cultural ecosystem.
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