Job Offer: British Council recruiting regional people in arts

Note from Shreela Ghosh.?Director Arts, Wider South Asia, British Council

The British Council is expanding its Arts Team across the South Asia region ? we are looking for new people in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka with arts expertise.
Partnerships are very important to the British Council (BC) so it is vital that the person has excellent communication skills and an entrepreneurial outlook.
Experience shows us that working for a large international organisation like the BC (operating in 110 countries) can be demanding for those from the South Asian creative sector as most people are likely to be working in small to medium sized companies ? I am afraid the bureaucracy is just a part of life ? so we need to recruit people with the right aptitude who can rise to the challenge even if they haven?t worked for a large organisation like ours, before.
I am attaching the Role Profile for the Head of Arts (Bangladesh) and hope that you will circulate this widely through your networks. The deadline is 7 April, so candidates will need to complete the application this week. My colleague Nahin and I will be happy to speak to anyone who wants more information about the role so please ask them to contact us.
Over the past 18 months we have created a strategy for increasing the impact of our Arts work across the region but this will only be possible with the right team in place. You are all very well connected within the creative networks in Bangladesh so I am asking you to help us identify the right person for this post.
Below you?ll find a link to our website where there?s also information about a more junior role ? yes, we need more than one person to run the arts programme as the BC?s profile continues to grow ? and people can also download the application forms by following the link.
Finally, some of you may already know of Culture 360 (based in Singapore) ? they want to do a mapping study of Bangladesh. This would be a very useful resource I think and benefit us all so if you know anyone who might be interested in doing this research please pass on the information to them.
Many thanks for your help ? Shreela
Shreela Ghosh, Director Arts, Wider South Asia, British Council, 5 Fuller Road, Dhaka 1000 mobile + 88 017300 92487

To know, one must imagine

Master Class and documentary photography workshop by Dr. Shahidul Alam

Dr. Shahidul Alam, eminent photographer and social activist from Bangladesh will facilitate a two and half day Master Class and documentary photography workshop titled ?Photography for social impact ? To know, one must imagine? from 19 November ? 21 November 2012 at Indian Council for Cultural Relations ( ICCR) , Kolkata.http://www.worldpressphoto.org/content/shahidul-alam
This workshop is being jointly organised by British Council and DRIK India.
The workshop will address the role and methods of documentary photography in achieving social impact. The culture of human rights and community goals has become a necessary aspect of contemporary public discussion and the impact of photography deserves a great part of the credit in spreading and rendering that culture readily perceptible and comprehensible. Photographic images at their passionate and truthful best are as powerful as words can ever be. If they alone cannot bring change, they can at least provide an understanding mirror of man?s actions, thereby sharpening awareness and awakening conscience. The workshop will help participants interpret and to create photograph that stand out from the crowd and questions the objectives of one?s perception and participation in the present visual world in which we live.

Facebook link
Please Retweet #drikworkshop

Commonwealth writers conversation

Hay Festival in Dhaka

farah guzhnavi at Hay Festival 0159 — Writer Farah Ghuzhnavi speaking at the Commonwealth Writers Forum with activist Shireen Huq looking on. Others on the panel were entrepreneur?Kamal?Quadir and photographer. The session was moderated by Belize writer Godfrey Smith. ???Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World

Our autumn festival odyssey across four continents begins in?Kenya, continues in?Spain, races on to?Mexico, then ventures to?Turkey, and on to?Bangladesh.

As we travel four continents we hope you will join us by downloading podcasts from each festival, signing up for our regular newsletters for monthly updates and following our international?Hay Festival blog?where writers from around the world offer their thoughts and reflections on the festivals they visit and the debates they take part in. We look forward to sharing our conversations, re-imagining the world with you.

About the festival

The three-day programme of events in 2012 will include authors and speakers from Bangladesh and across the world. The festival will take place over the 15th, 16th and 17th November at the Bangla Academy Ground.

The Hay Festival presents a wonderful opportunity to create dialogue between leading British and Bangladeshi authors; I hope this event will herald a new wave of Bangladeshi writing as we bring some of the magic of Hay to Dhaka.?Tahmima Anam

Dhaka is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh. It is located in the geographic centre of the country, in the great deltaic region of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers. The city is within the monsoon climate zone, in one of the world?s leading rice and jute growing regions. Dhaka is divided into an old city and a new city.
Saturday?17?November
[148]?3:30PM?COMMONWEALTH?WRITERS?CONVERSATION:?Main?Stage
A?panel?chaired?by?Godfrey?Smith,?the?award-winning?writer?from Belize,?explores?how?artists?can?participate?in?the?mechanisms?which affect?our?lives and?what participatory?governance?really?means.?With writer?Farah Ghuznavi,?entrepreneur?Kamal?Quadir,?activist?Shireen Huq?and photographer?Shahidul?Alam.
Full programme?Please Retweet #hayfestdhaka
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Protest against Hay Festival in Dhaka