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NT Bureau
Chennai, Jan 16:

        The Chennai chapter of National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) was launched at Lalit Kala Akademi at Egmore, Chennai, on Sunday.

        Founder and chairperson of the NMWA Sunita Kohli inaugurated Explorations, a series of cultural and academic programmes (from 14 to 20 January) to mark the launch.

        The NMWA was first launched in New Delhi on 5 December 2005 to highlight the contribution made by women artists in promoting tradition and culture. Madras Craft Foundation (MCF)-DakshinChitra is a partner for the Chennai chapter of the museum.

        President of the MCF Deborah Thiagarajan said the museum would be a good platform for women to explore their creativity and artistic talent. 'Arrangements are being made to inaugurate the museum in Coimbatore and next in Mumbai with state-of-the art facilities including research library and archive centres', she added.

        According to NMWA's mission statement, 'the aim of the museum is to bring attention to the achievements of women in all States and territories in India and to honour women artists of the past, promote the accomplishments of women artists of the present and future'.

        A week-long programme, Explorations, would showcase outstanding women in contemporary visual, performing and literary arts through exhibitions, poetry reading sessions, lectures, dance and panel discussions. The highlight would be 'The world of Tamil women poets' on 17 January. Eminent poets like Kanimozhi, Vatsala Malathy Maitri, Kutti Revathy would read out their poems and it would be followed by discussion.

        The explorations would end with a panel discussion and demonstrations on issues of dance with eminent speakers like Lakshmi Vishwanathan, Padmini Chettur on 19 January. For more details, contact: 24918943 or 24462435.