Conservation & Cultural Archive
Cultural Archives
The Cultural Archives in IGNCA is a unique archive holding objects related to contemporary history, living-history events, ethnography, ritual arts, religio-historic, and ceremonial practices. The archival collections in the archives are documented and catalogued by this division for curating and conserving them for posterity. Each object is archived as a composite totality in the name of the scholars or artists who are collectors, although in several cases, the collections may consist of audio/visual reproductions, books, and art objects. The Cultural Archives thus strives to represent in a capricious form the various tangible and intangible strands of the country, be it in terms of art objects, paintings, audio-visual and photographs. The archives are the core repository of original and reprographic materials relating to various art forms and associated literature. Apart from the personal collection of objects and black and white photographs, it also augmented its archival resources with original documentation of valuable cultural property and literary and artistic traditions in India.
The core collection for multimedia presentations and academic programs comprises originals, reproductions, and reprographic forms as the source materials for digitisation. These materials are documented in-house and networked with other institutions in India and abroad for knowledge and information.
Under the following broad headings the collections in the archives are divided
- Sahitya (Literature)
- Vastu Silpa (Architecture & Sculptures)
- Chaya Pata (Photographs)
- Sangita (Music)
- Nritya (Dance)
- Other Collection
- Collections of Other Divisions (Ethnographic Collection)
Audio Visual Library The Cultural Archives also house nearly 2,000 video tapes and 1,500 audio recordings in the form of tapes and spools of the various audio-visual documentation done by IGNCA. The archives also maintain films on research projects taken up by the various divisions of IGNCA. Some of these films such as Yelhou Tagoi by Shri Aribm Shyam Sharma and Wangala of the Garos by Shri Bappa Ray have won National Film Awards.
Access to the Cultural Archives Each collection is organized and maintained as a totality to give an insight into the personality of the collector, which would enable scholars not only to access the material collected, but also to be guided by the special predilections of the individual collectors.
In future, it is hoped that many more personal collections of artists, critics and scholars will find a place in the Cultural Archives of the IGNCA, the first resource pool of its kind in India.
Brief Report with Photogaphs (PDF) on visit by St. Mark Senior Secondary School on 24th March 2015, who were interested in exploring the paintings by Brunners available at the cultural archives of IGNCA, especially the work on ‘Two Pilgrims’.