Kochi: Musicare to raise funds for melam artists

KOCHI: An initiative by a group of artists and their friends to provide relief to carnatic musicians hit by Covid-19 in the state is now being extended to melam artists who have lost their livelihood due to the pandemic.

The Musicare relief fund initiated by artists, Sreevalsan J Menon,

Edappally Ajith Kumar

, Methil Devika, Rajasree Warrier, Balakrishna Kamath and Vazhappilly R Krishnakumar provided finacial help of 210 carnatic musicians, dancers and accompanying artists in the state. The bulk of financial help for the project came from two organisations -

Sarvamangala

Trust and

Advaita Dasa Foundation

.

"Seventy five percentage of the money we raised came as contribution from these two foundations. The objective was to provide a one time financial aid to the community of performing Carnatic musicians of Kerala across the art forms of music and dance," said Sreevalsan J Menon, carnatic musician and composer who initiated the project. The fund raised by them was used to provide a one-time financial assistance of Rs.2000 to selected artists. Classical dancers were also included in the beneficiary list. The artists co-ordinators reached out to various artists and opinion leaders in Kerala to identify the needy artists across music and dance. The good samaritans who worked in the second tier also helped identify the needy artists.

"What we did was a token gesture.But I am happy that it has triggered another round of fund raising for Melm artists in the state," he said.

All programmes that bring revenue to these artists from March 15 o May 15 were cancelled. While there are some who hold jobs more than 50% of melam artists depend on these events and it is quite hard for them," said Peruvanam Kuttan Marar who is also patron for Kerala Kshetra

Vadya Kala Akademi

, an organisation with 4,000 members.

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