Mumbai: Now, students can explore a career in culture at Godrej Culture Lab

During the internship the participants will be interacting with collaborators and heads of cultural institutions across the city PicsSneha KharabeIt was sometime last year that Rohini Kottu a student of Sions SIES College of Arts Science and Commerce first heard of the Godrej India Culture Lab an experimental ideas space in Vikhroli At the time the lab founder Parmesh Shahani and his team were at the college to talk about their new leadership programme where students from various backgrounds would get a monthlong internship at the centre When I found out about the contemporary issues and social causes that they were working on I was hooked says the 18yearold who plans to major in psychologyHoning culture bugsToday Kottu and six other students have been selected from a pool of 100 applicants for the labs new initiative that aims to familiarise students with the cultural scene and enable them to explore a career as curators and producers of culture Each year we try to come up with a new project on how we can serve the city better We keep getting requests from students who want to intern with us but we thought of making this more systematic and attracting people who are interested in humanities says Parmesh Shahani a TED Senior Fellow who founded the lab seven years ago The idea was also to crosspollinate by bringing together vastly contrasting people from different fields he adds Therefore there are students from architecture technology design and so onGodrej Culture Lab founder Parmesh Shahanis with the studentsPallavi Khare a student of Tata Institute of Social Sciences Chembur says what drew her to apply for the internship was the lack of opportunities in the culture space The issues that the lab has been engaging in such as caste politics and gender are subjects that I have always been interested in says Khare who has also studied journalism at Kamala Nehru College DelhiTurning curatorsThe process for the internship began over a year ago when students were asked to submit an application stating the changes they would like to see in the city and how they planned to go about it This was followed by personal interviews Harsh Vohra from School of Environment and Architecture Borivli one of the selected students said in his application he talked about how the city could do with more sensitivity and inclusion I had earlier volunteered with the Sassoon Dock Art Project and Remembering Partition Museum of Memories which is when I started feeling strongly about social and cultural issues he saysThe seven students were picked from 100 applicantsDuring the internship the participants will be interacting with collaborators and heads of cultural institutions across the city Recently they met Mortimer Chatterjee director of Chatterjee amp Lal a gallery for contemporary and historical material who spent two hours with them The cultural scene in Mumbai is quite inward looking and it can be hard for young people to feel they are a part of it Through such an initiative they are being introduced to us and vice versa and by this osmosis they become part of this bigger cultural community of the city he saysThe course will culminate in a gala event put together by students titled Urdu Culture Now on June 8 We came up with this after a lot of brainstorming An event on reviving Urdu culture in the city got the thumbs up says Ansh Shah a student of Industrial Design Centre IDC at IIT BombayCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates