SUMELI: Folk Studies Archive, WCC was established in March 2018 with the mission of exploring the distinct folk identities and legacies of the various regions India; disseminating information on the same; preserving and reviving vanishing expressions in the various folk genres; and striking a balance between the rural and the urban, the past and the present, and the marginalized and the mainstream.
Objectives:
- To explore the folk traditions, customs, practices, art, culture, livelihoods and knowledge domains of local communities across India.
- To understand and conserve the rich and diverse indigenous heritage of our pluralistic nation.
- To revive those folk cultural practices which are on the verge of extinction.
- To complement academic endeavour with ethnographic research, awareness and knowledge.
Scope:
- To adopt a historical, sociological and cultural overview on different genres of folk music, dance, oral traditions, and material arts and crafts in India.
- To provide a platform (howsoever limited) for the convergence of folk artists, experts/researchers/scholars, social workers and activists, cultural revivalists, government liaison officials and market players/influencers where they may bond in a holistic network.
- To achieve educational innovation with a new type of cultural engagement
- To integrate the curriculum with the traditional, popular and regional beliefs and expressions that are often marginalized in the modern, urban, industrialized and digitalized world.
Methodologies:
- Lectures, talks, discussions, demonstrations and conversations on the subject.
- Audio-visual presentations on the same.
- Live-streaming of conferences, panel-discussions, interviews etc on the subject in the virtual classroom of the college.
- Exhibitions on relevant books, manuscripts, artworks, artifacts and other available items of anthropological provenance and interest.
- Field trips to selected locations such as museums, art galleries, fairs and festivals.
The intention of SUMELI is to strive for a better understanding of the traditional folk arts and crafts of India, their historical, present and future contexts, their interactions with related and other branches of knowledge and experience and their survival and evolution.
