Monday
06
October 2025
11:00 AM IST
Location
Room 008, Amrut Mody School of Management
Central Campus
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Culture in Action: Economic Dimensions of Safeguarding Heritage
Workshop
Ananya Bhattacharya
Co-Founder and Director
banglanatak dot com
Speaker
This workshop explores the economic dimensions of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH), with a focus on rights-based and community-led approaches. While economic activity can provide vital support for heritage transmission and practitioner livelihoods, it can also pose risks of over-commercialisation, misappropriation, and decontextualization. UNESCO’s analysis underscores that under-remuneration is as serious a threat to safeguarding as over-exploitation, and that community control, free prior and informed consent, and ethical protocols are central to sustainable outcomes. Ananya will share on Art for Life (AFL), initiated in 2005, which demonstrates how living heritage can drive inclusive rural development. AFL engages over 70,000 tradition bearers across performing arts, crafts, and festivals, and has transformed marginalised villages into cultural hubs through entrepreneurship, community-run museums, festivals, and immersive tourism. By integrating ICH inventorying, enterprise training, ethical marketing, and digital storytelling, AFL revitalises traditional practices while addressing poverty and empowering women and youth. Participants will critically examine how community-led strategies—ranging from heritage-sensitive business planning to protocols like “Consent, Credit, Compensation”—can maximise positive impacts and mitigate risks. Through group discussion and AFL case examples, the workshop will highlight tools for building enabling environments, fostering community agency, and aligning ICH safeguarding with the Sustainable Development Goals. Ultimately, the workshop affirms culture not as a consumable resource but as a lived process, where economic engagement strengthens both livelihoods and custodianship. It invites participants to rethink policy and practice, advancing culture as a human right and a pillar of sustainable development.
Speaker
Ananya Bhattacharya
Ananya Bhattacharya, a Kolkata-based social enterprise that promotes inclusive and sustainable development through culture-based approaches. She is an electrical engineer from Jadavpur University and a Commonwealth Scholar with a Master’s in Sustainable Development. With over 35 years of global experience, Ananya specialises in gender, culture, and sustainable development. Ananya and her team have transformed the lives of 70000+ rural artists through development of grassroots creative economies and community-led cultural tourism. Ananya is a member of the UNESCO Global Facilitators Network on safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. She has contributed to projects across South and Central Asia, and is actively involved in advocacy on recognition of culture in the sustainable development agenda. She also serves on international boards and expert panels, including ICHCAP, the International Music Council, and ICOMOS's International Scientific Committee on Cultural Tourism. She is also on editorial boards of leading cultural heritage journals and publications.
