Spirit of Delhi

The Lalit Kala Akademi is celebrating its 60th anniversary celebrations. The year-long celebration was inaugurated by Minister of Culture Shripad Naik on 5 August 2014. The Lalit Kala Akademi, National Academy of Art, New Delhi was set up by the Government of India as an autonomous body on 5 August, 1954. It was established with a strong focus on artistic excellence and to bring the cultural identity of the nation to a luminous focus. It emerged as the principal establishment of culture that focuses on Visual Arts and its many splendoured forms. The Spirit of Delhi is an event part of the 60th anniversary celebrations that celebrates the city not only as the political hub but also the cultural capital of the country. The exhibition and calligraphy workshop will be inaugurated on 15 September 2014 by Shri Satish C. Mehta, Director General ICCR. The exhibition consists of paintings from the Lalit Kala Akademi's collection, photographs by the renowned photographer Padmashree Raghu Rai, poetry paintings by Abhay K and Tarshito, rare photographs from archives of Ambedkar University, Archaeological Survey of India, Delhi Archives, Delhi Institute of Heritage Research and Management and National Museum. The exhibition will be on view till 27 September 2014. A seven day long calligraphy workshop will explore different scripts like Gurumukhi, Urdu, Devnagri, Persian and will run until 21 September 2014 at the Lalit Kala Akademi, a book counter on Delhi will also be a part of the show.'Delhi is 'Dehali', i.e. 'threshold', 'gateway', glorious etymological truth of thecapital of India, deeply embedded in its samsaric imperial heart and trivial bureaucratic self-images and centrist complacency, likely to be quite drowned in the flood of five-star freebooting now overtaking it. But in its occult and occasional unfallenness, what is Delhi, a threshold, a gateway, to? Let us supplicate its ancient King and Queen, Yudhishtira and Draupadi for an answer. The Delhi (all right, Indraprashtha) that they had fought for and won...was certainly a gateway to samrajya, imperial power. But Delhi...is also a threshold to the Himalaya...the samrajya of eternal wisdom...Dehali ki jai! '- Ramachandra Gandhi .