Heading ahead for the cause of heritage conservation, the Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation, Udaipur will organise the second edition of the World Living Heritage Festival (WLHF) 2014, from 13-16^th March, in association with UNESCO New Delhi. The festival is conceptualized by Arvind Singh Mewar, the 76th custodian of the Mewar dynasty and the first in the series was held here in November 2012.

An international conference will take place on the occasion to debate ‘How a City can Promote the Living Heritage’ with the participation of several experts from India and abroad. The conference intends to present examples of Living Heritage in India and outside with the purpose to outline a clear framework to promote the concept of Living Heritage.

The four-day-long festival will feature photo exhibitions, panel discussions, a book launch, sound and light show, etc at The City Palace. Workshops will be organized and visits planned to meet craftspeople practicing traditional art and craft forms with the aim to fuse their crafts with modern and contemporary styles, creating new interpretations of age-old art and craft forms practiced in Mewar.

The event will bring together experts from India and abroad to debate the key questions to inspire the future action plan for Udaipur. The speakers invited for the Festival include NGOs namely Barefoot College, Digital Empowerment Foundation and banglanatak dot com  as well as experts including Minja Yang, President & Professor at Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation, KU/ Leuven (Belgium), Kai Weise the conservation architect (Nepal), Ravi Gundu Rao,   Dr. Ravina Aggarwal, Ford Foundation, Dr Anjoo Sharan Upadhyaya, Malaviya Centre for Peace Research, Banaras Hindu University and Mary McCarthy, Director of the National Sculpture Factory, Cork, Ireland. The HRH Group of Hotels is the hospitality partner for WHLF – 2014.

By Geetha Sunil Pillai