Contact Base

Contact Base (trading style: banglanatak dot com, 23 years old) is a non-profit entity having special consultative status with UN ECOSOC, advisory st Read moreatus to UNESCO 2003 Intangible Heritage Convention and a global partner of UNWTO for promoting responsible tourism. We work for inclusive and sustainable development, using culture as a tool. Our flagship initiative, Art For Life (AFL) ( https://youtu.be/4GgNhQ77pO4 ), is a culture-based development model focusing on the holistic development of marginalized cultural practitioners by making their traditional cultural practices the premise for inclusion and poverty alleviation, as well as strengthening art form and the process of heritage transmission to next generation.  Working for the past 23 years, our organizational efforts have been acknowledged on multiple forums, both national and international. This year, we are selected as a Harvard Business case , published and available at the Harvard Business Publishing Education site, https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/ISB339-PDF-ENG . We have also received the Indian Responsible Tourism Award 2023 from Outlook https://youtu.be/4PkYVnVNbI8 . In 2019, we received the Jeonju International Award for promoting Intangible Cultural Heritage and in 2014, we got the Bihar Innovation Forum II award. In 2006-07, we got the National Award on HIV Communication from NACO/ UNAIDS. Contact Base has worked with Governments, UN agencies, European Union, and various Int’l & National Non-Govt. organizations, Embassies/ Consulates and global research institutes & universities.  We have developed a good network with organizations in Asia, Europe, the USA and Africa, with more than 400 international artists (craft persons, designers, musicians, dancers, choreographers, and new media artists) for collaborative workshops and also sent about 300 craft artists, musicians, painters and dancers abroad for performance and workshops supported by our network partners. We are honoured that the Honourable Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi ji also referred our work during his Mann Ki Baat programme ( https://youtu.be/aAJpjKVUbHA ).   We specialise in research, documentation, capacity building and training for reviving art and craft traditions, developing business and entrepreneurial skills, developing community-based institutions, facilitating direct market linkage, strengthening the identity of the crafts through GI, developing cultural tourism, and organising festivals and fairs. As part of our projects, we have designed community museums and folk art centres located at the art and craft clusters. We have also organised and designed various craft exhibitions, B2B meets national and international exchanges and collaborations, and festivals. We have developed village festivals as a platform for celebrating the heritage of the villages and that has helped in the development of cultural tourism in the villages.  Recently we started two new initiatives: Social Lab - focusing on Citizens Research & Entrepreneurship, and Football for Development.