Seven cultural personalities from different arenas will receive the prestigious Shilpakala Padak 2018 for their continuous contributions to the respective fields.

The awardees are -- Alakesh Ghosh in fine arts, Sunil Chandra Das in instrumental music, Shukla Sarkar in dance, Gaur Gopal Haldar in vocal music, Mina Barua in folk culture, M Hamid in dramatics and Jayanta Chattopadhyay in recitation.

President Abdul Hamid will formally hand over the awards to the recipients at a function to be held at the National Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA) at 3 pm on July 18. State Minister for Cultural Affairs K M Khalid, MP, will attend the event as special guest while Liaquat Ali Lucky, Director General of BSA, will deliver welcome address. Dr. Md. Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal, NDC, Acting Secretary to the ministry of cultural affairs, will preside over the ceremony. Following discussion and award giving ceremony, artistes of BSA will display acrobatic show at the event.  

A press conference was held yesterday in this regard at the seminar room at the National Theatre Hall, BSA, where Liaquat Ali Lucky elaborated on the details of the award. Roxana Malek, Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, and Badrul Anam Bhuiyan, Secretary to BSA, among others, were present at the press meet. 

Each awardee will get a cheque for BDT 1 lakh, a gold medal and a certificate, a BSA senior official told The Daily Star.

A 16-member nomination committee, comprising of BSA director general, secretary, six directors, seven cultural personalities and one representative from Cultural Affairs Ministry, selected this year’s awardees.

The award has been conferred since 2013 on deserving creative personalities for their outstanding contributions to 10 sectors -- music, instrumental music, dance, dramatics, fine arts, recitation, photography, jatrashilpa, film and folk culture.