#livingart2019-Community Engagement Initiative -Majuli

The Land. Majuli is a river island in the Brahmaputra River, Assam, India. The island has captured the world’s attention on two very distinct subject areas: Ecology and Religion. The island is shrinking at a rapid pace: In 1901 the island covered an area of 1255 km and in 2001 it was approximately 421 km (Sarma and Phukan 2004). The shrinkage in landmass is largely due to erosion caused mostly by flooding during monsoons: “You cannot make a map of the island because by the time you print the map, the island has changed its shape” (Goyal 2011). In reference to religion, Majuli is well known for the Vaishnava monastic lineages, the Satras.
Diverse groups of people inhabit the island in an almost harmonious equation: Mishing, Deoris, Sonowal, Kacharis, and Ahom. However, the social fabric of the island is fraught with social stratifications based on caste lines overlaid with purity and impurity codes.Maati Community and Social Engagement Projects.Maati Community(registered in 2011; 18ACQPL1026MIZA) is grassroots based organization focused on education and preserving thearts and culture in order to foster cultural heritage and effective transmissions in Assam, India. The organization has undertaken several different educational as well as sustainable livelihood projects. Below is a list of their activities:

Operational:

1. Contemporary Art and Music School teaching the community children, village Chitadharchuk, Majuli.
2. “Akonir Puthighar,” Community Library, village Chitadharchuk, Majuli.
3. “Kuhi Paat,” Community Library, village Borbam Dibrugarh. 
4. “Maati Center,” fair price store for rural artisans, Guwahati.
5. “Maati Community,” fair price store for rural artisans,   Kaziranga.
6. “#LivingArt,” annual event integrating academia, non-profit and health, Chitadharchuk, Majuli.

Upcoming (2020):
 

1. Community Library, Kaziranga. Expected to be operational inJanuary 2020.
2. Community Library, Kaziranga. Expected to be operational inFebruary 2020. 
3. Forest Stitch, Kaziranga: Emphasis on livelihood generation and training for the tea plantation tribal community.  Expected to be operational in April 2020.
4. Community English Medium School, Patharichuck, Majuli. Expected to be operational in August 2020.

 #Livingart2019
The vision of #livingart2019 is to comprehensively integrate different groups of people into an interdisciplinary platform. The three broad areas planned are: Health, Social Heritage, and Cultural Identity:

Health	Social Heritage	Cultural Identity (1st - 5th Grade) and (6th – 10th Grade)
1. Clean drinking water systems for the entire community at Chitadarchuck village.	1. Architectural Study of Mishing homes: Conduct an academically rigorous research on the bamboo architecture of the Mishing homes.	1. Art competition and exhibition. 2. Singing competition. 3. Dance competition. 4. Public Art installation. 5.Sound of Living. 6.River Dialog. 7.Film Screening.

#Livingart2018 - Flashback

Last year we challenged ourselves and pulled out the festival during the same time when Raash was celebrated – it attracted a huge amount of tourist and visitors which gave us the confidence and we are looking forward for this year to take living art to a new level.
Last year we invited many eminent personalities, Padma Shri Jadav Payeng, Uddhab Bharali ,Dr. Satish kumar university of Belfast, Ireland for interaction among children ,
#Livingart2019
Three day event.
This year we have broadly planned to bring out outcomes of the event in a much structured and powerful manner so that it helps in building capacities and also focus into giving back to the communities and create a positive outcome which will be documented and a project report can be generated from therein.
We are taking the whole activity to many different areas of Majuli, so that the understanding and knowledge sharing will happen on various platforms and there is a strong need to bring these learning across mainstream platforms.
This initiative will help building a strong cultural exchange medium, involving artist, educationist, filmmakers from the region and outside in others to create an opportunity of working with indigenous communities and a strong knowledge sharing process to be originated.

For further information about us and our works please go through the links below.

Read:
a.Community Library For Children In Assam’s Majuli
https://leher.org/blog/community-library-children-assams-majuli/

b.A space to dream.
https://medium.com/@prabir008/a-space-to-dream-961fa64a3cd9

c.How The Resilient Children Of Majuli Turned The Floods      Into A Learning Experience
 https://leher.org/blog/resilient-children-majuli-turn-floods-learning-experience/

Facebook :
Our Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/maaticentre/
https://www.facebook.com/LivingArtCommunity.in/

Youtube:
Youtube video of our past project : community childrens library.

Instagram profile.

https://www.instagram.com/maati_community/
https://www.instagram.com/living_art_assam

Children engagement :-

1. Painting Competition : 35000 INR ( 32 Schools in Majuli)
2. Signing competition   : 25000 INR (32 Schools in Majuli)
3. Dance Competition    : 25000 INR (32 Schools in Majuli)
4. Story telling Folk stories :20000 INR
5. Performing arts. : 30000 INR
6. Solo painting exhibition by gokul paying : 35000 INR
7. Judge and musician fees : 30000 for 3 days .
8. Children Film Screening :20000 INR
9. Public Art installation : 45000 INR
10. Liveart2019 – creating a unique visual experience in the whole island of Majuli.:50000 INR
11. Bamboo Architectural study and documentation- sharing the outcomes with community : 35000 INR
12. Session on Science as a tool of learning and innovation. 20000 INR
13. Discussions and workshop on Environment and bio diversity. 15000 INR
14. Art Talks & Exhibitions :25000 INR
15. Creating a community clean drinking water system for children’s at Chitadharchuck : 200000 INR
16. Culture and folk Archival discussions and initiation.:10000 INR
17. Photography Exhibition :35000 INR
18. We are showcasing a unique proposition during #Livingart2019, wherein we have shortlisted 8 no of community children, who will be given digital camera and they will create a photo journey ,along with a story while clicking their daily activity, the same will be processed by one of a renowned photographer.Presently we are training these young minds through a workshop on how to bring out the stories from them.The same will be exhibited globally though various platforms.