The Hindu : New Delhi News : Artists seek Minister’s help to stop sealing of studios

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Saturday, Jul 05, 2008
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Artists seek Minister’s help to stop sealing of studios

Staff Reporter

Urge him to amend new Master Plan for Delhi-2021 to provide them relief

NEW DELHI: Perturbed by the sealing of studios of various artists and threats to this end, a delegation of professionals from the field called on Union Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy and urged him to amend the new Master Plan for Delhi-2021 to provide relief to them.

The delegation informed Mr. Reddy about recent incidents of sealing of studios and how other artists were constantly living in fear of their premises getting sealed. The artists also submitted a letter to the Minister narrating their woes and giving their suggestions on the issue.

The signatories to the letter included Ram Rahman, Vivan Sundaram, Ranbir Kaleka, Shubha Mudgal, Gulam Sheikh, Avinash Pasricha, Shovana Narayan, Justin McCarthy, Navtej Johar, Anjum Singh, Paramjit Singh, Arpita Singh, Subba Ghosh, M.K. Raina and Ram Gopal Bajaj. They said Mr. Reddy was extremely surprised to hear of these development and was extremely sympathetic. He promised to immediately consult his officials to see how the problem could be resolved. In their letter the artistes have demanded the Minister’s “urgent intervention” to ensure that the Master Plan for Delhi-2021 is amended to include a specific provision allowing individuals like them to operate from spaces in non-institutional areas. The letter said that with the recent cases of sealing impacting the art scene in Delhi due to the closure of many art galleries many artists have been forced to move out to Gurgaon and Noida. In this light, the artists demanded that the provision related to professionals in MPD-2021 about mixed use for professional activity must recognise the fact that all artistic activities are ‘soft uses’ and cannot be compared to a shop, office or any other commercial use. They appealed that artists, theatre professionals, musicians, dancers, photographers and new-media artists as well as students be recognised as a separate category and a listing be created for them.

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