Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College, Udupi

REGIONAL RESEARCH CENTRE

Regional Resources centre for Folk Performing Arts was built with the help of the grants offered by the Ford Foundation. The saga of the RRC marks the culmination of international recognition that this pioneering institution of learning acquired. The origin of this recognition was by way of an invitation extended to Prof.K.S.Haridasa Bhat in 1962-63 to attend a 6 month course in ISVE, Italy. The invitation from the ICCR to visit foreign countries like Hong Kong leading the Folk Dance troupes was the beginning of a series of foreign trips.

Invaluable archives have been built under the auspices of the Regional Resources Center for Folk Performing Arts with the help of the grants offered by the Ford Foundation.

Dr. Peter Claus helped the RRC to launch a series of International Workshops in Folklore studies(1988-89) in which eminent folklorists of the world participated as resource persons. A book on Indian Folkloristics by Dr. Peter Claus and Frank Korrum published by the RRC was the product of the workshop series. The Indo Finnish Project carried out in the precints of Dharmasthala and Belthangady Taluks under the Auspices of RRC. This project involved the active participation of Prof. Lauri Honko,the Finnish National professor of Folkloristics. Prof Lauri Honko was invited for a seminar on the Finnish Folk Epic Kalevala in 1985.

The contact with Prof.Lauri Honko has been followed by signing a memorandum of understanding between Turku University,Mangalore University and RRC for the promotion of Folklore research and sharing of knowledge.The centre has entered into international collaboration in documentation projects.It will be an on going project with the establishment of the M.G.M.Culture Foundation to be established jointly by the Academy of General Education and the Ford Foundation.

The Centre has produced rich documentation material in audio visual form based on a series of field studies, workshops, seminars and festivals.The centre has entered into international collaboration in documentation projects.Taking up the most modern methods of multimedia documentation the RRC has become a great treasure of Folklore material . Photographs ,Cassettes,Videos,slides analysed,classifiedand stored for easy retrieval can be consulted on the spot by interested people. Siri Sampada, which contains valuable archival material, is equipped with a sophisticated video editor's desk where Harshavardhana Bhat has produced documentary videos on rare forms of folkperformances. The Dissemination Project of presenting RRC hodings before interested audiences in the Dhwanyaloka is one of the most important parts of the informal education which the college has taken up with gusto and vigour.

The Ford Foundation offered a liberal grant to the college, initially for two year period to launch the project of serveying and documenting the folk theater forms of Karnataka.The grant was renewed subsequently and there after , to enable the institution to sustain itself the Ford Foundation sanctioned endowment grants to the tune of 38.75 lakhs which were matched by an equal contribution from the Academy of General Education to institue a corpus fund. Computerised documentation and retrieval of information is a speciality of RRC.The RRC has established itself as a major documentation centre of folklore.