Seven luminaries honoured with the Shilpakala Padak 2017
Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA) conferred the Shilpakala Padak 2017 to seven cultural luminaries in recognition of their outstanding contributions to different creative arenas like vocal music, dance, instrumental music, fine art, dramatics, folk culture and photography.
The awardees are Alauddin Mia in jantra sangeet (instrumental music), Sharmila Bandyopadhyay in nrityakala (dance), Nasir Ali Mamun in alokchitra (photography), Chandra Shekhar Dey in charukala (fine art), Kangalini Sufia Begum in loko shongskriti (folk culture), SM Mohsin in natyakala (dramatics) and Mihir Lala in kantho sangeet (vocal music).
President Abdul Hamid formally handed over the awards to the recipients at a function held yesterday at the National Theatre Hall auditorium of BSA. Each awardee received a cheque worth Tk 1 lakh, a certificate and a crest.
“Art and culture are the mirrors of a country. A nation's identity is shaped through art, language and culture. They basically help form a knowledge-based society inspiring the practice of intellect in constructing a humanistic society,” says President Abdul Hamid. “The role of the artists, singers and cultural activists during our Liberation War and in all the democratic movements are immense. It's a matter of honour and pride that seven cultural personalities have been bestowed with the Shilpakala Padak this year. I hope you all will engage more efforts in your respective creative fields to contribute to society and inspire young artistes.”
On behalf of the award winners, noted singer Mihir Lala, spoke at the event, expressing his feelings.
Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor was present as special guest while Cultural Affairs Secretary Md Nasir Uddin Ahmed presided over the programme. BSA Director General Liaquat Ali Lucky delivered the welcome address at the event.
According to the principle, a 16-member committee, led by the BSA director general, selects the cultural personalities for awards. The committee comprising seven cultural personalities -- Dr Sanjida Khatun, Mustafa Monwar, Samarjit Roy Choudhury, Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam, Ramendu Majumdar, Minu Haque and ABM Nurul Anwar -- along with BSA secretary and directors of different departments and one representative from the Cultural Affairs Ministry selected the awardees for this year.
According to Liaquat Ali Lucky, from next year onwards, the awards will be conferred to cultural personalities for their continual contributions in twelve fields -- vocal music, instrumental music, dance, dramatics, fine art, recitation, photography, jatrashilpa, film, folk culture, cultural organisation & organiser, and researcher.
Following the award giving ceremony, young acrobats of BSA entertained the audience, displaying their feats at the programme.