One of the main objectives of the project has been to empower the youth of Chandernagore and build their pride in their town's heritage. The key aim of the competition is to inspire people of all ages to discover more about their recent past through active engagement with their heritage. It will help raise awareness of the settlement and encourage participants to visit and appreciate their local sites. There is a far greater chance of the survival of this heritage with the community as its custodian in present scenario where there is no legislation local or state to protect these heritage buildings.
READ MOREWe designed an community engagement strategy which included conducting workshops and competitions amongst the school children to spread the awareness for the conservation of the heritage of Chandernagore. It is hoped that these students would be inspired and proud of their heritage and gain new skills to appreciate and care for their local environment.
We have worked with volunteers from the town and have publicised most of the competitions through social media/ word of mouth.
The strategy was designed to first engage the children in activities they were comfortable and accustomed to such as painting and creative writing and then engage them in new out of the box pursuits such as the Lego Brick by Brick competition, Photography Workshops, Comic Book Workshops which would give them new mediums to express themselves. Furthermore a community engagement workshop was conducted at the Strand where younger kids were to play a game, older people were engaging in conversations about the changes they wished for their town.
The aim of this competition was to encourage out-of the box thinking and stimulate the children's mind to look at their town and appreciate its heritage buildings in a 3D perspective. The participants were asked to choose any landmark, architectural feature that they thought was representative of the heritage of Chandernagore. The participants were provided the Lego blocks and on-the spot they had to make a structure at the IdC. A total of 07 children in the age group of 12-16 years participated. All the entries were photographed, catalogued and later dismantled.
The aim of this competition was to encourage out-of the box thinking and stimulate the children's mind to look at their town and appreciate its heritage buildings in a 3D perspective. The participants were asked to choose any landmark, architectural feature that they thought was representative of the heritage of Chandernagore. The participants were provided the Lego blocks and on-the spot they had to make a structure at the IdC. A total of 07 children in the age group of 12-16 years participated. All the entries were photographed, catalogued and later dismantled.
The Painting competition was held in two parts, the first was an on-the spot competition that was held at IdC. A total of 19 children in the age group of 8-18 years participated. In the second round, the same brief was circulated to a total of 07 schools and a total of 22 entries were received.
BRIEF
We are trying to create a storyboard of Chandernagore. Heritage isn't just about the buildings it is about the people and how they lead their lives. Heritage is anything is of value, one generation wants to hand down to the next. So think about what is special about Chandernagore, that you will want your grandchildren to see and draw it out.
The children were encouraged to derive from their immediate environments, their homes, their streets and their town, envisioning what it may have been like during the time of the French. Or to consider what Chandernagore may be like, if all the elements of the narrative were to be played out today. What would contemporary Chandernagore be like, if the people of Bengal lived in harmony with the French.
ANALYSIS
It was fascinating to see that most of the children associated some fixed images with the Heritage of Chandernagore that included the Dupleix Palace, Institut de Chandernagore, the Strand and the Nandudulal temple, a couple of them drew the Durga Puja. None of the children considered any of their homes of public spaces as heritage.
The Creative Writing competition was held in two parts, the first was an on-the spot competition that was held at IdC. A total of 44 children in the age group of 13-17 participated.
The Creative Writing competition was held in two parts, the first was an on-the spot competition that was held at IdC. A total of 44 children in the age group of 13-17 participated.
BRIEF
The objective of the competition was to encourage out of the box thinking and experiment with writing in a manner that was different from the traditional method of essays. The second age group of 13-17 years was asked to complete the following story in 1000 words.
"One day I wake up and realise that everything around me has changed. I am in Chandernagore but it is looking very different. I run to the Strand and I see men in dhotis with umberellas, white European men with hats with their women in fine dresses walking along the promenade. The buildings look all new and the clock tower strikes 4. I hear the Church bells are ringing, I hurriedly take the newspaper from a passerby and am shocked the date is 21st May 1940."
A photography workshop was conducted by renowned photographer Sanjeet Chowdhury wherein he mentioned about the basics of photography. It was followed by a curated photo-walk which gave participants an opportunity to see the hidden treasures of Chandernagore. The key aim of the workshop was to inspire people of all ages to discover more about their recent past through active engagement with their heritage. It was hoped to raise awareness of the settlement and encourage participants to visit and appreciate their local sites.
The aim of this workshop is to encourage the children to imagine and articulate a short narrative of the stories of Chandernagore. The workshop was conducted by illustrator Chitra Chandrashekhar and started with introducing the participants to the visual language of comics, leading them to write short stories on the theme of Heritage & People of Chandernagore. The brief given to the participants was to define a timeline for their story, the genre as well as set their story at a location or site in Chandernagore. There were a total of 13 participants.
ANALYSIS
The workshop helped understand the perceptions of the town by the youngsters. It also brought to surface how in everyday life the romanticism associated with a colonial town faded away into mundane and simple stories. The participants reflected the general air of casualness out of ignorance/indifference associated with heritage both built and cultural.
There is a great scope of developing a more succinct programme of Education and Awareness for the Heritage of Chandernagore.
To engage the community in the project, a call for applications inviting enthusiastic youth who was passionate about their heritage to join us in the project was announced. The main objective was to encourage and give a platform to the local youth, students of history and other enthusiasts to get involved in building the story bank of the town. A total of 15 people signed up as citizens historians who worked through the summer in collecting the history of the place. The volunteers went from home to home speaking to the older people to capture their memories on audio and video of what they remember about Chandernagore.
These citizen historians were then supervised to curate a heritage walk for the town based on the information collected by them including local stories and research at the libraries. They were trained to lead this walk primarily to develop this as a sustainable revenue generating model for the youth of Chandernagore and this would help their heritage become relevant to them today. On the occasion of the Indian Independence day, a heritage walk was conducted on the theme of the Nationalist movement, collating all the stories they had collected over the summer. A map and brochure was designed, which was handed out to the participants and would be available for download from the website.
The ultimate aim is to encourage creative experimentation in the food of Chandernagore. The competition was aimed at housewives and enthusiastic young adults were interested to experiment with the tastebuds. There were a total of 05 participants. The brief was to create a fusion cuisine between French and Bangla using local ingredients and spices but inspired by French Cuisine, each participant could make either a starter, main dish or desert and bring it to the IdC for the judging.
It was a great beginning to a culinary experience, the competition could have been more successful if there was possibly a workshop with some famous chef handholding the ladies as there was not too much exposure to French cuisine as a result participation was limited.
A total of 07 schools were invited to participate and 05 teams of two students each were selected for the final quiz. The theme of the quiz was Heritage and People of Chandernagore and there were a total of 3 rounds of questions and team from Chandernagore Aurobindo Vidyamandir were declared the winners. The second and third prizes were given to Krishna Bhabini Nari Shiksha Mandir and Kanailal Vidyamandir (English) respectively. The quiz was designed, developed and conducted by the Citizen's volunteers under our supervision and guidance and was successful in raising awareness about the heritage of Chandernagore.
Through a game-like interaction be able to understand the level of sensitivity and awareness of the community about its heritage. This workshop was set at the Strand, in the centre of the town making it accessible to all and conducted with the permission of the Mayor of Chandernagore. The school children were engaged in a creatively designed game on the theme of Heritage and People of Chandernagore and included four rounds the first being favourite place in and around Chandernagore, second favourite streets, third What if..and finally the fourth round was a general quiz on Chandernagore. There were a series of planned interactions with the general public across all age groups to understand a) what do they understand by heritage and b) what is the future they envisage for Chandernagore. The younger children were involved in a simple heritage awareness exercise modelled on the memory card game. The objective was that children could indirectly learn about photographs of places and landmarks used in the game. The act of play itself became a memorable experience and had many participants.
ANALYSIS
The Community Engagement Workshop was able to bring to the surface multiple insights in a short span of time through interesting out of ordinary game-based interactions. Through a one-on one interaction, it was possible to extract issues and aspirations about what the towns citizens envisaged for their town. The method of hands on manner of capturing key ideas and issues in a colorful and concise manner allowed curious and knowledgeable passersby to inquire and also involve themselves in the event. The success of the workshops was demonstrated by the number of people who learnt about heritage, developed skills, changed their attitudes towards heritage of the town and had an enjoyable experience.
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