Liberation through art It is a universally accepted fact that art therapy has a tremendous impact on the psychological well-being of the artist. But, when the artist happens to be someone ordained to life behind bars, the exercise assumes a deeper significance. Painting in Prison, the ongoing group show of paintings and sculptures, offers a remarkable case in point. Featuring works by 30 inmates of correctional homes of the state, it demonstrates the power of art to reform and redeem those who are commonly treated as social outcasts. Confined to prison and shunned by society for having erred due to various circumstances, they have been given an opportunity to express their feelings and emotions through participation in an art workshop organised by the department of correctional services, Government of West Bengal. The results of the endeavour have been, to say the least, extremely praiseworthy. Besides revealing the hidden talents of the participants, it has given them a sense of happiness, fulfilment and, above all, a will to live and return to society’s mainstream. A brainchild of B.D. Sharma, IG of Correctional Services, West Bengal. Hosted by The West Bengal Correctional Services, Birla Academy of Art & Culture and Flight to Harmony Foundation. Event: An exhibition of paintings and sculptures by inmates of correctional homes in West Bengal When: Till October 19; 3 pm - 8 pm Where: Birla Academy of Art & Culture, 108 Southern Avenue, 1st floor

art

n Till October 17 at Academy of Fine Arts (New South Gallery); 3 pm - 8 pm: Bengal Fine Arts College, Chandpara, North 24 Parganas presents the 7th Annual Art Exhibition 2008 featuring works by its students. Till October 18 at Galerie Karma, P-505 Keyatala Road, #2463-6731/32; 11 am - 7 pm: Second Self — an exhibition of illustrations and paintings by artists from Bengal’s leading dailies. Till October 18 at Chitrakoot Art Gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: Legends and other portraits — a solo exhibition of portraits by Sabita Dhar. Till October 18 at Chemould Art Gallery, 12F Park Street; 2 pm - 7 pm: An exhibition of drawings and sketches by Biswajit Guha Roy. Till October 19 at Birla Academy of Art & Culture, 1st floor; 3 pm - 8 pm: West Bengal Correctional Services presents an exhibition of paintings and sculptures by the inmates of correctional homes of West Bengal. Till October 19 at Birla Academy of Art & Culture, 4th floor; 4 pm - 8 pm: Budhaditya Banerjee makes his debut with a solo exhibition of paintings, based on the Indian style symbolising Indian shastra and philosophy. Till October 22 at Artists Circle, 46 Circus Avenue, #2283 3176; 2 pm - 7 pm: Inspiration — a show by senior artists. Participants: Adimoolam, Anita Roychowdhury, Bijon Chowdhury, Ganesh Haloi, Gautam Mukherjee, Laxma Goud, Palaniappan, Paritosh Sen, Prakash Karmakar, R.B. Bhaskaran, Sekhar Roy, Shipra Bhattacharya, Subroto Chowdhury, Subrata Gangopadhyay, Suhas Roy and Surya Prakash. Till October 23 (except Sunday) at Akar Prakar, P 238 Hindustan Park, #2464 2617; 2 pm - 7 pm: 3 Masters Briefly — an exhibition of the works by Francis Newton Souza, Jagdish Swaminathan and Meera Mukherjee. Till October 30 (except Sunday) at Aakriti Art Gallery, 1st floor, Orbit Enclave, 12/3A Hungerford Street, #2289 3027; 12 noon - 7 pm: GenNext III, the annual show of Aakriti Art Gallery featuring an exhibition of paintings, sculptures, prints, textiles, video and photographs by contemporary artists below 40 years of age, including foreign participants from different continents. Till October 31 at Gallery K2, Supra Court, 35 Lansdowne Terrace, #2465 1444; 11 am - 7 pm: Contemporary Art on Display — works by Partho Pratim Deb, Paresh Maity, S. Pranam Singh, Subrata Gangopadhyay, Shilajit Ghosh, Nabendu Roy, Sudipto Karmakar, Saumya Kanti Mukhopadhyay and others. Till October 31 (except Sunday) at Ganges Art Gallery, 33A Jatin Das Road, #2465 3212; 11 am - 7 pm: Art Fair 2008 — a collection of affordable art. Featuring works by Manoj Dutta, Munindra Rajbongshi, Chandana Hore, Parag Adhikari, Anup Giri and Madhuri Jalan. Till November 1 at Bose Pacia, Stephens Court, 18 Park Street, #4001 0148; 11 am - 7 pm: Bose Pacia, Calcutta presents latest works of Rao Kodanda (Baroda) and Basist Kumar (Santiniketan). Till November 10 (except Sunday) at Tejas Gallery, 11 Mayfair Road, #4007 6042; 1 pm - 7.30 pm: Devi-II — Twenty-five artists’ impressions of Goddess Durga. Till November 28 at Idiyas Gallery, 15 Dover Road, #6550 8418; 10.30 am - 6.30 pm: The Voices of the Canvas — an exhibition of the works of 20 well-known artists.

DRAMA

October 16 at Girish Mancha; 6.30 pm: Natasena presents Gorur Garir Headlight, written and directed by Saroj Roy. October 16 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Theatre Workshop presents Bhagaban Ja Karen Ta. Drama & direction: Ashok Mukhopadhyay. October 16 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Abhaash Dakshin Kolkata will stage its latest production, Bhalobasa Bharatbarsha, based on litterateur Vaikam Muhammad Bashir’s three stories in Malayalam. Drama, direction & acting: Shekhar Samaddar. October 17 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Natyaranga presents Dadu Chaye Nati Chaye. Drama: Surajit Bandyopadhyay. Direction: Swapan Sengupta. October 17 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Kalyani Natyacharcha will stage Meyeti, directed by Kishore Sengupta. Acting: Goutam Halder and Bindia Ghosh. October 18 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Sayak presents Chandan Sen’s Daibaddha. Direction: Meghnad Bhattacharya. October 18 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Sansriti will stage Surjo Pora Chhai. Drama & direction: Debesh Chattopadhyay. October 19 at Girish Mancha; 6.30 pm: Sayak will stage two short plays, Bneche Thaka and Swarnochampa. Dir: Meghnad Bhattacharya. October 19 at Tapan Theatre; 6.30 pm: Mukhomukhi and Niva Arts present Atmakatha. Drama: Mahesh Elkunchwar. Bengali adaptation & direction: Soumitra Chattopadhyay. The cast includes Soumitra Chattopadhyay, Lily Chakraborty, Poulami Basu and Damini Mukherjee.

PERFORMING ARTS

n October 16 at Calcutta School of Music; 6.30 pm: A Spanish guitar concert: Five Centuries of Classical Music by guitarist Armando Orbòn. October 18 & 19 at Birla Academy; 6 pm: Rhythm presents its 27th annual music concert. Oct. 18: Rosy Dutta Pandit (vocal) with Sujit Saha (tabla) and Ratin Majumder (harmonium); Sandip Chatterjee (santoor) with Sujit Saha (tabla) and Gourab Chatterjee (harmonium); and Bhola Nath Mishra vocal) with Biswajit Dev (tabla) and Khagesh Kirtania (harmonium). Oct. 19: Taal-Bichitra (Dir: Sujit Saha) by the students of Rthythm; Arun Bhaduri (vocal) with Sujit Saha (tabla); and Buddhadev Dasgupta (sarod) with Samar Saha (tabla). October 18 at Rabindra Sadan; 6.30 pm: Utsaha-Udvas presents an evening of reading and Tagore songs. Featuring Joy Goswami in a programme of reading, titled Tumi Jano, Srijatokishor? and Rahul Mitra and Sayan Bandyopadhyay in a programme of Tagore songs, titled Aamaar Chola Nabin Pataye.... October 18 at the Far Pavilion, Tollygunge Club; 7.15 pm: Black Dog and Tollygunge Club, in association with Leather Club and Open Doors, present A Tribute to The Doors. Featuring the city band, Insomnia, along with singers Rishi Chanda and Samidh Mukherjee (both from Hip Pocket) who will relive the magic of Jim Morrison and The Doors with such superhits as LA Woman, Light My Fire, Roadhouse Blues and Love Me Two Times.

TALK

October 16 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Shivananda Hall; 6.15 pm: Swami Somatmananda will speak on Sri Sri Mayer Katha. October 16 at Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi Sabhagriha; 6.30 pm: The 13th Papia Chakraborty Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Prof. Karuna Sindhu Das, vice-chancellor, Rabindra Bharati Univeristy. Topic: Rabindra Natyasampad. Also, Agnibha Bandyopadhyay will render songs from Tagore plays.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Till October 19 at Dum Dum Motijheel College; 5 pm - 9 pm: The 51st International Salon of Photographic Art, hosted by Photographic Association of Dum Dum. Featuring 84 works of 58 photo-artists of 14 countries.

WORKSHOP

October 16 - 18 at Swatantra, 26/3 Sahapur, New Alipore; 2 pm - 5 pm: A three-day mime workshop to be conducted by Kamal Naskar. Details at #98300 87267, 2432 7144. October 17 at British Council; 3 pm - 5 pm: British Asian poet Daljit Nagra will run a workshop for aspiring poets and writers. October 20 - 24 at Max Mueller Bhavan: Workshop for young people as the first round of activities for the education fair, Bal Vividha 2008, an education fair to celebrate alternative approaches to education organised by Comet Media Foundation (Mumbai) in collaboration with BITM (Calcutta). Details with Subha Das Mollick, #2223 1082.

EXHIBITION

Till October 31 (except Sundays & public holidays) at Studio 21, 17L Dover Terrace, #2486 6735; Monday: 3 pm - 7 pm; Tuesday - Saturday: 11am - 7 pm: The New Idyllic — Indigenous art from Madhya Pradesh. October 16 - 18 at Moksh, 22 Camac Street: Rugsgallore presents a collection of woolen and leather carpets, rugs, bathmats and beanbags. Details with Veena (9830109698) or Ritu (9331003755).

POETRY

October 19 at Rooftop, 120 Lenin Sarani; 5 pm - 7 pm: Srijan hosts an evening of poetry — an interactive adda, moderated by Anjum Katyal, where poetry would be read in English, Bengali and Hindi by Amitabha Gupta, Anjana Basu, Arthur Cordozo, Chaitali Chattopadhyay, Inam Hussain Mullick, Mrityunjoy Sen, Pramod Shah, Rashmi Kheria, Sayantan Mukherjee, Trina Nileena Banerjee and Vinay Sharma along with Anjum Hasan from Bangalore.All those who wish events to be included in this column should write not less than a week ahead to: Time out, The Telegraph, 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta-700 001; Fax: 2234-8244

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All those who wish events to be included in this column should write not less than a week ahead to:

Time out, The Telegraph, 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta-700 001;
Fax: 2234-8244