An international digital cultural archive was inaugurated in the capital on Sunday with cultural tokens like films, theatre, music,
documentaries and others of almost 20 countries.
Under the maintenance of Theatre and Film department of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, the archive is housed for the time being at room no 613 on the fifth floor of Theatre building of BSA.So far, the archive has been able to collect cultural materials from countries like Switzerland, South Korea, Sri Lanka, India,Thailand among others.
Funded by the cultural affairs ministry, the archive will mainly try to digitally preserve our country’s culture from folk tale to films, from street theatre to rock music, the organisers said.
The archive was inaugurated by cultural affairs secretary Dr Ranjit Kumar Biswas. International Theatre Institute’s worldwide president Ramendu Majumdar was the special guest at the programme presided over by director general of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Liaquat Ali Lucky.
‘I hope researchers will be greatly benefited along with common enthusiasts from this archive’, said the chief guest Dr Ranjit Kumar.
‘If we get some keen individuals to maintain the archive, it will become a treasure house,’ remarked thespian Ramendu Majumdar.
‘The archive will be a digital storehouse of culture and heritage tokens from across the world. We have already started to collect from several different countries including Bangladesh,’ said Liaquat Ali Lucky.
‘We have requested foreign embassies to arrange the best specimens of their cultures and they have responded positively,’ he added.
Anyone can become a member of the archive by filling up a form and paying a token amount. The members will have unrestricted access to all the contents preserved in the archive.
-With New Age input