The opening of the traditional Indo-Russian festival of culture in the Roerich Estate in Naggar was marked with the celebration of children's and youth’s creativity. Young artists of the Kullu valley and their teachers gathered at the Helena Roerich Academy of Arts of the International Roerich Memorial Trust. And there is the reason of this event – this year the spring festival is dedicated to the 140th Anniversary of the birth of Helena Roerich – a unique philosopher, writer and thinker. The words of Helena Roerich “Through Art you have Light” became the motto of the children's Academy of Arts of the IRMT.
The holiday began with the opening of the drawings exhibition of Indian and Russian children “The Bridge of Culture and Friendship between Russia and India”, created as part of the festival “Russia and India: From Heart to Heart”, one of the organizers of which was IRMT. The exhibition was presented by Tamara Merges, the festival coordinator, the head of the group of volunteers of the International Center of the Roerichs (Moscow). Among the authors of the drawings there were students of the Helena Roerich Academy, students of Indian and Russian schools. Thanking to the active participation of volunteers and friends of the ICR, with the support of the Roerich societies, schools, libraries, museums and houses of culture , fifteen exhibitions took place in different regions of Russia, the last of which were opened at the Stieglitz Academy and at the Rabindranath Tagore school in St. Petersburg. The exhibitions were also held in five schools in Delhi (India), and during two years more than two thousands of Indian and Russian students took part in children's drawing contests.
The second exhibition, which was opened that day at the Helena Roerich Academy, was dedicated to St. Petersburg, the hometown of the Roerichs. The works of students and teachers of the St. Petersburg State Art and Industry Academy named after A.Stiglitz were presented at the exhibition. Architectural images of St. Petersburg and its suburbs, the Summer Garden, the Neva river, small rivers and canals, famous bridges... The city is a fairy tale, the city is a museum, combining different ages and styles. These exhibition works reflected the greatness and beauty of St. Petersburg, its high culture and freedom-loving spirit.
Guests of the Festival were greeted by the Indian and Russian curators of the IRMT, Mr. Ramesh Chander and Ms. Larisa Surgina, working at the IRMT on deputation from the ICR (Moscow) as well as honored guests of the event: Mrs. Sushma Sharma, President of Panchayat – self-government body of Naggar, and Mr. Anatoliy Lebedenko, Deputy Head of the Unified Scientific Center for Problems of Cosmic Mentality of the International Center of the Roerichs, Moscow.
With the melody of waltz Russian ladies and gentlemen dressed in costumes of the late 19th – beginning of the 20th century – appeared before the audience... A picture of St. Petersburg emerged on the screen… And the people who were at the event for a while found themselves in the city, where Nicholas Roerich and Helena Shaposhnikova were born at the end of the 19th century, and the memory of which they carried throughout their lives. The Russian guests showed the audience a slide presentation devoted to the life of the Roerichs in St. Petersburg.
The participants of the competition were offered the theme “Russia and India in the Roerichs' Life”. Most of the children depict the things close and clear to them – the Himalayas, the native Kulu valley, the estate of the great Russian artist and his family. But the knowledge that the children received about St. Petersburg and the Roerichs, and the images they saw in the pictures and on the screen, broadened their horizons and helped to feel more deeply the inner community that unites Russia and India and which the Roerichs carried in themselves, laying a solid bridge of friendship between our peoples.
The first day of the festival ended with Russian folk games and master classes for creating traditional Russian folk toys. Participants were awarded with commemorative sertificates, gifts and sweets. And in conclusion, everyone united the dance to the song “May there always be sunshine”, performed together by the Indian and Russian guests of the International Roerich Memorial Trust.
Read also the ICR site
