Tagore Festival

Resurgence celebrated Rabindranath Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary in association with The Dartington Hall Trust

01-07 May 2011, Dartington Hall, Devon

2011 is the 150th birth anniversary of visionary poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. He was an inspiration in the establishment of Dartington Hall Trust in the UK which was set up as a pioneering institution for education, culture, crafts, arts, sustainability and social justice. Tagore was a champion of the East and West fusion and promoted a positive relationship between India and Britain. Therefore we are using the occasion of his birth anniversary not just to honour Tagore, but also as an opportunity to focus creatively on the issues he raised that are relevant to our time and to future generations.

UNESCO has declared 2011 the year of Tagore, Neruda and Aimé Césaire. The Resurgence Trust is co-ordinating events throughout Britain with the support of the Temenos Academy and Dartington Hall Trust. We will mount the core activities of the Gitanjali Tagore 150 Festival at Dartington Hall, Devon UK for one week from the 01-07 May 2011.

This will be a People’s festival of the Arts, Crafts and Culture, linking the common heritage of Britain and the Indian Subcontinent. During this week, high profile politicians, policy makers, media representatives, business leaders, artists, activists, poets and academics will present their work and vision on the importance of creativity and the arts in life. They will address the urgent and pressing issues of our time such as environmental sustainability, social justice, and the place of the Arts, aesthetics, creativity and spirituality in inspiring people to take positive action.

Tagore envisioned a lifestyle based on elegant simplicity, moderation in consumption, practice of arts and crafts in daily life and cohesion and harmony amongst different religions, cultures and countries. The Festival will have a multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary approach and be of a high intellectual and artistic standard going beyond narrow academic boundaries and offering opportunities to people from all walks of life.

Festival Programme

Each day of the festival took a different theme such as poetry, music, drama, dance, philosophy, current affairs, science, social entrepreneurship and justice.

In addition to the main sessions there were many parallel performances and exhibitions over the week of the Festival. There was also good Indian food!

A Short Film

A short film featuring Tagore, during his visits to Albert Kahn in 1921.

Albert Kahn having made his fortune, devoted himself to his ideal: the establishment of universal peace. Many people were invited to his villa in Boulogne. Among them was his friend Rabindranath Tagore. He stayed several times at Boulogne and in 1930 at Cap Martin with his family.

It is hoped that this Tagore 150 Festival will have encouraged optimism and empowered participants to look at the current global ecological and economic predicament as a challenge that can be met through artistic, cultural, spiritual and ecological action.

The following speakers and performers appeared at the festival

Full programme available here

Authors

Poets

Artists

Dancers

Aditi Mangaldas
Sonal Mansingh
Prarthana Purkayastha
Anusha Subramanyam
Vinitha Rajkumar
Dartington Morris Men
Jo Hardy

Theatre

Musicians

Philosophers and Activists

Innovators

Juliet Davenport
Peter Redstone
Nick Paget
Rupert Sweet-Escott
Andrew Alexander
Maggie Alexander
Manju Malhi
Phillip Frances
Stephan Harding
Julie Richardson

The Resurgence Trust

This event will help raise money for The Resurgence Trust, an educational charity (No.1120414) registered in England and Wales.

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