The Sutton Subrang Dance Ensemble, Photo: Rolf Killius

The Museum of Croydon and the London Sitar Ensemble hosted a major exhibition in the Croydon NOW gallery of the Museum of Croydon, and other public display areas at Croydon Clocktower, from April to July 2009. The exhibition showcased the outputs of the ‘String and Dance Festival’ Project which was run by London Sitar Ensemble. The core exhibition comprised of oral history interviews (video), musical instruments and associated objects from the Community Groups involved and other donors (potentially the Horniman Museum), photographs and videos showing musical performances and dances from the Indian Sub-Continent as performed in the UK, costumes and associated musical instruments of all eight classical Indian dances and three folk dance genres from western India. Within the musical instruments display the emphasis was on string instruments like the sitar, sarangi, violin, veena, sarod, santoor and the supporting instruments like drums and cymbals.

Two photo exhibitions complemented the exhibition and were displayed in other public areas of the Clocktower: one showing Croydon-based dancers and musicians; and the other about a music instruments collection project in India. The exhibition was embedded in a string of events like workshops, rehearsals, oral tradition interviews and concerts. Taking and using a wealth of digital video, still photography and audio recordings constituted a major part of the activities and display.

Indian music and dance is one of the finest traditions in the world. Tracing its roots back to times immemorial, these art forms have an interesting pattern of evolutionary changes. Many changes, transformation and evolution have taken place, enriched by the contribution of the musicians and dancers, great and small, famous and unknown. The India – Britain story is a 400 year long tale of travel, migration and cultural exchange. This journey has made a significant influence on the cultural scene of British Arts. The ‘Indian Strings and Dances’ project, undertaken by London Sitar Ensemble and Croydon Museum and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, aims to explore the evolution and contribution made by the musicians and dancers in Britain.

The exhibition was curated by Lata Desai and Rolf Killius in close collaboration with Rob Shakespeare, Acting Museum Service Manager.

Exhibition dates: 4th February – 13th February 2009 (excluding weekend)

Opening times: 10am-6pm

Admission: Free

An exhibition of paintings by nine artists from Cornwall will be held at the offices of the European Commission in London, Jean Monnet House, Westminster. Artists whose work will be exhibited include:

Clive Carter
Anthony Frost
Francis Hewlett
Ashley Hold
Robert Jones
Andrew Lanyon
Margot Maeckelburghe
Mary Martin
Louise McClary

Viewing will be on Wednesday 4th to Friday 6th February and Monday 9th to Friday 13th, between 10am to 6pm.

Jean Monnet House is at 8 Storey’s Gate, adjacent to Central Hall Westminster. 
Nearest underground: St. James’ Park

This exhibition is being hosted by the European Commission in association with the Cornish Gorsedh and the Centre for European research within Cornwall, CERES.

For more information please contact ceres@freeuk.com or 01209 715642

CERES is a not-for-profit organisation which provides cultural heritage links between Cornwall and the wider Europe. Cornwall possesses a vibrant cultural heritage stemming from Celtic origins; a heritage which has contributed significantly to the European mosaic. From the outset the policy of CERES was to establish links at working levels in the European Commission and Parliament, and similarly in the Council of Europe and with organisations such as the European Cultural Foundation. This policy has been maintained with success and the Secretariat’s pioneering approaches laid foundations that led to a greater European awareness of Cornwall and to Cornish participation in a variety of heritage programmes and projects.

A new five-part television series following the investigative work of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. The Commission and the FBI are both 100 this year – watch the ‘Welsh bureau of investigation’ uncovering clues to our past.

4 November – Building Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. Rediscovering a lost church in the Conwy Valley. The oldest gate in Europe?

11 November – Uncovering an Industrial Revolution copperworks in Swansea. Deciphering a ninth-century inscription. Revealing an Iron Age hillfort.

18 November – The Roman army at Trawsfynydd. Exploring social history with Huw Edwards at a great Llanelli chapel. Tracing Tudor master-carpenters.

25 November – Lumps and bumps in the uplands. A Victorian millionaire’s farm. Rediscovering wall paintings in the Wye Valley.

2 December – A disappearing mansion at Llandeilo. How would Wales have fought a Nazi invasion? Searching for a castle of the Welsh princes at Portmeirion.

Available on iPlayer at www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/

www.tinyurl.com/hiddenhistories

“World heritage status, enjoyed by 885 sites on the planet, means absolutely nothing” and goes on with: “The decline of British urban design is a mystery. Projects that would not survive a minute in other European cities must be fought line by line through British planning committees, public inquiries and courts.”

Read the full article by Simon Jenkins

Read ICOMOS-UK’s response

We welcome your comments on this story below.

A study day organised in association with the British Museum, British Kazakh Society and the Royal Asiatic Society, focussing on the history and culture of Kazakhstan. It will include lectures by noted academics and writers of the archaeology, history, art and music of Kazakhstan, providing an introduction to this vast country of diverse landscapes and a rich cultural heritage. There will also be a performance by renowned Kazakh musicians of traditional music, a photographic exhibition and a reception at the end of the day.

For more information and bookings please click here.

Monpa Musician, Photo: Rolf Killius

Seven months ago the Horniman Museum opened its exhibition Utsavam – Music from India, exploring the rich and diverse music of India. It takes its name from the Sanscrit word “Utsavam”, meaning musical festivities.

Utsavam – Music from India explores the cultural and lingustic diversity of a land that is home to a sixth of the world’s population. Sound, film footage, musical instruments and objects including a spectacular Kathakali dance costume take you on a journey to India, where music traditions are under threat at a time of rapid change in the subcontinent.

Responding to the huge public demand, Rolf Killius, Co-curator of the exhibition, decided to invite for a special guided tour through the exhibition. On Sunday 21 September the Museum will host the Kala Chetana Kathakali Company with special guests (dancers and musicians) from Kerala. The special tour will take place on 21st September at 4.15pm directly after the Kathakali performance at the exhibition entrance. To see the line-up details, read the press reports and watch the programmes about the exhibition please follwo this link www.rolfkillius.com produced by Nigel Muris from Printstream.You might also be interested in an exciting new project, which in a way follows the path cleared by the Horniman’s Utsavam exhibition: an online sound project of the British Library Sound Archive in collaboration with the Horniman Museum, Traditional Music in India, where 100 music examples from recording trips to India starting in 1995 will be selcted and presented on the official British Library website and will be downloadable in mp3 format.

Sherban Cantacuzino, ICOMOS-UK President Emeritus

We are please to announce that architect Sherban G. Cantacuzino originally from Romania, CBE FSA D.Univ (York) MA (Cantab) FRIBA and ICOMOS-UK President Emeritus, has been awarded a Medal in Category 3 – Dedicated Service at the 2008 European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage.

Sherban has dedicated his life to architecture and heritage conservation in Europe and around the world. He has taught, published and helped shape national and European policies and programmes in the field of cultural and natural heritage protection. He held functions in a large number of committees in the United Kingdom and in several international organisations. After 1989, he focussed on Central and Eastern European countries and offered his experience to organise measures to safeguard the heritage in these countries. He initiated numerous projects, particularly in Croatia and Romania , where he is the Founder-President of Pro Patrimonio, the National Trust of Romania. The career of Sherban Cantacuzino is valued for its outstanding contribution to the welfare of Europe ‘s cultural heritage. His continuous energy and dedication for the cause of historic buildings and environmental conservation in Romania has been particularly admired.

The first The first Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Festival was held in 2005 and its aim was raise local awareness and appreciation of the unique heritage of the Ironbridge Gorge. Each year, the Festival has gone from strength to strength and last year several thousand visitors, along with traders and entertainers, came together in the centre of Ironbridge to enjoy the stunning surroundings of the Gorge on a beautiful autumn day.

The 2008 Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Festival will be held in Ironbridge on Saturday 27 –  Sunday 28 September. The weekend is set to be an exciting and enjoyable time for residents, businesses and visitors as we celebrate the area’s unique heritage. Also, this year we have the added attraction of a light show, organised by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, to mark the regional launch of the Cultural Olympiad, and some of you will already have received details of this from IGMT.

The celebrations will kick off at dusk on the Friday when the Museum of the Gorge, the Iron Bridge and Bedlam Furnaces will be illuminated in an exciting and attractive display, which will be repeated on the Saturday evening. The light show will end at 10.00pm each evening.

On Saturday and Sunday, the World Heritage Festival will take place and this will involve a wide variety of entertainment, activities and displays. As a result of the recent flooding, the original plan to use Dale End Park for the Festival has had to change and the activities will now be focused on Dale End car park (Victorian Funfair), Merrythought (entertainment, stalls, art exhibition and displays) and The Wharfage (street market, on Saturday only). There will also be a Flower Festival and concerts in Jackfield Church. In addition, a major piece of public art, depicting the Iron Bridge and produced by an artist from Ironbridge working with local schoolchildren, will be on display during the event. More information about the event is available on www.ironbridgeheritagefestival.org.uk.

The Festival weekend is an important event for Ironbridge. It is an opportunity for the local community to enjoy a fun day on their doorstep; it will give a boost to local businesses and it will encourage more visitors to the area.

The Festival is organised by a partnership of local organisations and businesses and co-ordinated by Ken Toyne. The aim of the event is to raise local awareness and appreciation of the World Heritage Site and encouraging more people to enjoy the unique attractions that the area offers.

The main funders of the event are the European Regional Development Fund, Birse Civils and Telford & Wrekin Council.

ICOMOS-UK Summer Conference delegates on Todd Crag, Lake District

Selected Summary Proceedings of the ICOMOS-UK 2008 Summer Conference are now online.

The conference was organised in collaboration with the University of Cumbria and took place on 12-14 June 2008 at its Ambleside Campus in the Lake District. The packed conference programme showcased speakers from across the UK and Europe, with a particular focus on cultural landscape World Heritage sites.

The persistent themes were how cultural and natural environments can be integrated in landscape management; the importance of educating local communities, especially young people in and about their landscapes; sustainable infrastructures and sustainable methods; the importance of a spirit of place or terroir in making one landscape, its produce and people, distinct from another; the challenges posed by government agendas and the use of international guidelines such as the European Landscape Convention and World Heritage Convention in protecting the integrity of cultural landscapes; and how landscape encompasses both tangible and intangible qualities, past and present.

If ever there was a conference which allowed delegates to ‘live’ its themes, it was this one. The peaceful and breath-taking environment of Ambleside was a constant reminder of the human yearning for discovering a sense of place. After the formal proceedings over two days, all delegates were invited to sign up to an afternoon guided walk on the Friday (13 June) (Rydall Hall followed by a circuit of Rydal Water; Low and High Sweden Bridge); Todd Crag) and a day’s excursion on Saturday (14 June) with options to visit a number of sites in the Lake District (Evolution of the Great Langdale landscape; Aira Force and Lyulphs Tower, Ullswater; Tarn Hows and Monk Coniston; Vernacular Buildings in Troutbeck; Villa architecture in the Lake District 1770 – 1900; Hill farming and land management at
Glencoyne Farm, Ullswater).

Prehistoric rock art on a boulder, Great Langdale Valley, Lake District

The close relationship between people and their landscape being part of the continuity of ‘place’ was most evident in the passion with which our guides led groups of delegates over Fells, in the valleys, around historic buildings and around the Lakes.

On behalf of the conference, we thank all the guides for leaving us with such a refreshing impression of the history and nature of the Lake District.

Some will remember the conference for the picturesque scenery and walks, some for the new information they gleaned from listening to others, others still, from the many opportunities afforded by meeting over lunch, tea and dinner, or while on a tour. After the evening buffet on Thursday 12 June, delegates who attended the conference dinner were treated to a short but highly-charged performance (a mini ceilidh) of Lake District folk music by local band, Striding Edge, including traditional clog dancing: a true demonstration of how place, landscape, and culture function as one. Listen to traditional Lakeland music by Striding Edge

Selected Summary Proceedings of Cultural Landscape Management

Heritage and Environment: An Indian Diary by Shyam Chainani

This is a personal account of a lifetime’s campaigning for the protection of India’s architectural and wider environmental heritage by a remarkable man.

Shyam Chainani’s father was, in the time of the Raj, one of the few Indians to become an ICS officer (one of the ‘heaven born’) and after Independence was appointed a High Court Judge. His son initially followed a conventional career as a business executive with the great Tata Group, following education in India, Magdalene College Cambridge and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

As a young man Shyam Chainani’s instinctive appreciation of the contribution historic buildings make to the urban environment led him to start questioning the destruction which he saw around him in the Bombay of the 1960s and 70s. When his beloved Royal Bombay Yacht Club’s nearby predecessor building of 1898 was proposed for demolition, he was galvanised into what became an obsessive lifetime’s devotion to environmental action.

It is a remarkable tribute to Tata and, by extension, the new young democratic country of India, that Chainani’s employer continued, for over 20 years, to pay a salary to allow him to carry out full time campaigning work, even when sometimes those campaigns were in direct opposition to the interests of the company. Is there a comparable example in UK business history?

The 500 plus pages of this illustrated book recount numerous instances of moral bravery by the committed few who gathered under the banner of the Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG) and were prepared to stick their necks out over matters of principle, sometimes in the face of seriously intimidating threats.

The name of the Group came to be rather misleading once its campaigning activities extended to many of the other great cities of India and even to hill stations and sites of ecological importance.

One of its bitterest and most challenging campaigns was fought in the 1980s against the might of the Navy, in defence of Bombay’s historic Naval Dockyard and its other historic buildings. The dockyard has been in continuous use since the early part of the 18th century and is where numerous ships for the East India Company and later the Royal Navy were built. Chainani describes how, after protracted and sometimes vicious exchanges at ministerial and chief of staff level the Government’s Director of Archaeology was finally won over by BEAG and the Government was persuaded to declare the historic structures listed buildings. This together with the winning over of some admirals frustrated the Navy’s intention to demolish the 18th and 19th century frontage buildings.

Government ‘heritage’ officials were not always so cooperative. Protection for India’s archaeological sites was put in place before Independence but the resultant great bureaucracy ‘The Archaeological Survey of India’ (ASI) considers the protection of the overwhelming bulk of India’s built heritage outside its remit and the book recounts how it has fallen to the heroic discriminating few to campaign for legislative protection for this vitally important part of the country’s cultural heritage.

Anyone interested in India’s extraordinary post independence history will find this an intriguing read, providing as it does an insight into the complex workings of that liberal democracy. Those who have fallen under the spell of India and love its historic towns and villages should purchase a copy to demonstrate their solidarity with the brave few whose heroic battles are catalogued here.

Barry Joyce
March 2008

Book details

HERITAGE AND ENVIRONMENT: AN INDIAN DIARY
By
Shyam Chainani

Published by The Urban Design Research Institute. November 2007.

Rs.995, $25, £13

ISBN 81-9019740-4-4