Santiniketan is a unique location on earth, conceived by the great sage and writer Rabindranath Tagore as an ideal cultural and intellectual hub, a space for ideas and creativity to meet, interact and flourish for the good of humankind. A place beyond narrow political affiliations, with a central commitment to humanity as a whole. Despite its iconic and heritage character, Santiniketan is yet to host a contemporary literary and arts festival of its own. To encourage this dream space to rediscover its potential as a true idyll for creative thinkers, artists and writers, we have conceived of a weekend festival around the time of Holi, the community festival celebrating renewal, color and camaraderie. This is visualized as a free, open-access, nonprofit festival of arts and ideas, with sessions in both English and Bengali. It will coincide with the inaugural weekend of the annual Nabanna crafts mela.
Nabanna is a ten-day crafts festival which provides a platform for craftspersons to sell their wares and interact directly with their buyers. For over 10 years Nabanna has performed this service, combining it with art activity for children and an evening cultural program. We feel that there is potential to expand the scope of Nabanna to include a weekend festival of arts and ideas featuring writers and artists, cultural and creative thinkers. All creative fields will be included, for a rich cross pollination of ideas, from traditional crafts, arts and literature, to contemporary design, cuisine and food cultures, sustainability and nature concerns and all areas of discussion for a healthy and thriving humanity.