Bengaluru: A three-day Dalit Christian Artists workshop was held from 18th to 20th January 2019 at Indian Social Institute, Bangalore. Around 17 Dalit Christian artists from different parts of India, belonging to various denominations, participated in the workshop. The highlight of the event was the artists coming together to form a National Dalit Christian artist’s forum to acknowledge and appreciate the Dalit artists who are usually not recognised by the society.
Fr. Devasagayaraj, the Secretary for CBCI Office for SC/BC and Fr. Selva, the ISI director motivated the artists to come out with Dalit arts with Christian faith perspective. They insisted that the arts should not only bring out the pathetic reality of the Dalits but should also bring out the faith aspect as a Christian value of Hope which is one of the core values of Christianity.
The artists also shared their artworks with other artists. Ms. Sarianna and Mr. Jussi, visitors to the workshop, shared their experience of art wok with Dalit Christian artists. On 20th, an exhibition was held by displaying the artworks done by the artists. Mr. Kennedy the Regional SC/ST Commission joint secretary welcomed the gathering.
Mr. Inbakumar, General Secretary of Students Christian Movement of India (SCMI) opened the exhibition. In his address, he said that Dalits have their own culture which is very rich and we should appreciate it and tell the society and the whole world about its richness. He also insisted that we should make use of our art forms as weapons of Dalit Liberation.
The artists felt happy about their forum and the purpose of the forum is to identify and encourage the Dalit Christian artists. They also plan to conduct training programs for the young people, so that their artistic talents are nurtured.
Mr. Robinson, one of the National Coordinators for the CBCI Office for SC/BC did the logistics of the workshop.