<p>An event to showcase personal and community stories is coming up this weekend.</p>.<p>Curating for Culture, the collective hosting the virtual event, was conceived in 2020 by Ishita Shah, historian, archivist and designer.</p>.<p>As a response to the lockdown, she organised a series of workshops with Vallabi Jain, public space designer.</p>.<p>Together, they launched a 10-day workshop in April last year with 12 participants. Two more workshops followed.</p>.<p>“Those sessions ended with the participants framing a proposal or plan,” says Ishita.</p>.<p>It then led to ‘Constructing Personal Archives’, a four-month incubation programme that featured workshops, and open dialogues with her and other archivists.</p>.<p>Twenty participants were selected from Delhi, Raipur, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Shimla, Raipur and the Nilgiris in India, and Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Syria and the United States.</p>.<p>Participants included freshers, graduates and working professionals. Select participants were mentored.</p>.<p>After four months, they were asked if they would be interested in using the acquired knowledge to build projects.</p>.<p>Two months on, the participants are ready to showcase their work digitally.</p>.<p>The projects represent a wide variety of interests. Some archive family histories, while others engage with community narratives or build institutional archives.</p>.<p>“There are archives on Auroville and the architect Pradeep Sachdeva, and one where a grandmother becomes the protagonist and is telling the story of the family’s migration,” she says.</p>.<p>Every household or neighbourhood is full of narratives and this programme intends to empower people to take control of their own history, Ishita explains.</p>
<p>An event to showcase personal and community stories is coming up this weekend.</p>.<p>Curating for Culture, the collective hosting the virtual event, was conceived in 2020 by Ishita Shah, historian, archivist and designer.</p>.<p>As a response to the lockdown, she organised a series of workshops with Vallabi Jain, public space designer.</p>.<p>Together, they launched a 10-day workshop in April last year with 12 participants. Two more workshops followed.</p>.<p>“Those sessions ended with the participants framing a proposal or plan,” says Ishita.</p>.<p>It then led to ‘Constructing Personal Archives’, a four-month incubation programme that featured workshops, and open dialogues with her and other archivists.</p>.<p>Twenty participants were selected from Delhi, Raipur, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Shimla, Raipur and the Nilgiris in India, and Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Syria and the United States.</p>.<p>Participants included freshers, graduates and working professionals. Select participants were mentored.</p>.<p>After four months, they were asked if they would be interested in using the acquired knowledge to build projects.</p>.<p>Two months on, the participants are ready to showcase their work digitally.</p>.<p>The projects represent a wide variety of interests. Some archive family histories, while others engage with community narratives or build institutional archives.</p>.<p>“There are archives on Auroville and the architect Pradeep Sachdeva, and one where a grandmother becomes the protagonist and is telling the story of the family’s migration,” she says.</p>.<p>Every household or neighbourhood is full of narratives and this programme intends to empower people to take control of their own history, Ishita explains.</p>