POT Maya 2019

Naya, Pingla, November 15, 2019

POT Maya, a festival celebrating the works of Patachitra artists took place in Naya, Pingla, in the district of West Midnapore. It expanded between 15th to 17th November turning the village of Patachitra artists like a canvas as each walls of the mud houses were painted with motifs from a typical Patachitra painting. The three-day festival encompassed not only the stalls selling scrolls of Patachitra, but other diversified products as inspired by Patachitra paintings like T-shirt, fans, earrings, sari, dupatta and so on. A vibrant festival like POT Maya was able to attract visitors from not only West Bengal but it expanded to viewers beyond the borders. The visitors got a scope to enjoy the usage of natural colour workshop and specific workshops with children were also there to make them more close to the world of Patachitra painting through puzzles and what not. As a special initiative to protect artists’ rights, signage in Bengali and English were installed in various places to request visitors to write the names of the artists and their village while posting photos and videos in social media and to use relevant hashtags. Visitors also got to know about the Geographical Indication (GI) status of the Bengal Patachitra from the signage. But that is not all, special performance of Raibenshe a certain form of martial art and Chau dance also created an environment of wonder for all our visitors.