IGNCA Regional Centre Inaugurated in Jammu | 24 Dec 2024

Why in News? 

Recently, the Lieutenant Governor of J&K, Manoj Sinha, inaugurated the regional center of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in Jammu. 

 Key Points 

  • Role of Folk Traditions and IGNCA’s Contribution: 
    • Jammu’s folk traditions have been a source of enduring values and ideals, sustaining society through generations. 
    • The IGNCA regional centre will nurture cultural virtues, enhance quality of life, and support the preservation and promotion of Jammu's rich art and cultural heritage. 
    • The intelligentsia was urged to collaborate with organisations like IGNCA to promote Jammu and Kashmir’s artistic heritage and to preserve and propagate the Vedic oral tradition. 
    • India’s civilisational ethos of "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" (the world is one family) and its ongoing relevance globally was highlighted. 
  • Role of Youth in Cultural Preservation: 
    • The L-G called on enlightened citizens and stakeholders to encourage artistic thinking in the younger generation, leveraging their creative potential to benefit society. 
    • He stressed the importance of making regional literature, folk music, drama, and Pahari art accessible in every household through articles, monographs, and books. 
  • ‘Toycathon’ Initiative: 
    • The L-G commended ‘Toycathon 2024’, an initiative aimed at grassroots innovation by designing toys based on local cultural ethos and the lives of regional heroes. 

 Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA)  

  • It was established in 1987 as an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Culture, as a centre for research, academic pursuit and dissemination in the field of the arts. 
  • The IGNCA has a trust (i.e. Board of Trustees), which meets regularly to give general direction about the Centre’s work. The Executive Committee, drawn from among the Trustees, functions under a Chairman. 
  • It is a research unit under Project Mausam. 
    • Project ‘Mausam’ is a Ministry of Culture project with Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), New Delhi as the nodal agency. 
    • The central themes that hold Project ‘Mausam’ together are those of cultural routes and maritime landscapes that not only linked different parts of the Indian Ocean littoral, but also connected the coastal centres to their hinterlands.