PROJECT TEAM
SUKANYA RATH
A development practitioner and communication professional for nearly twenty four years now, Sukanya has rich and diverse experience of working with grassroot communities as well as large public and private sector initiatives. A developmental psychologist by training, field research led her to specialized social sector practice, designing and implementing initiatives for improving human development indices at state and national levels. Working with UNICEF, NASSCOM, Mission 2007: Every Village a Knowledge Centre, Hindustan Latex, Paradeep Phosphates and multimedia-communication initiatives like Gaon Connection, Project Kishori, IMR Reduction Mission and MEENA campaign, she has many impactful projects and advocacy programmes to her credit. Sukanya's deep connection with art and an abiding interest in the art scenario recently brought her to an active engagement with the art community. Integral to the Art in the Smart City programme since its inception, she has played a key role leading art programmes in the state and continues proactive work highlighting public art for transforming quality of life in urban spaces.
SANDEEP HOTA
Sandeep Hota is an ex PwC management consultant who is currently working as a project manager at Utsha. As part of the Utsha team, Sandeep has led numerous art projects including participating in the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism . He has authored a white paper called ‘ Art in the Smart City’ which explored the various ways art can bring about significant social and lifestyle changes in the proposed Bhubaneswar Smart City. He was a key founding member of the Bhubaneswar Art Collective that conducted the seminar based on this paper. As a management professional he has worked in many countries with diverse clients including BP, Transport for London , Dentsu Aegis and Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation.
BILASH SARDAR
Bilash Sardar is an art historian who is currently working as the Centre Administrator at Utsha. Bilash has also worked in Daastaan media communication as a young researcher. As a part of Daastaan team he has worked on a book translation project named ‘Parikrama of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’ and archival project on Sajjad Zaheer , an eminent Urdu writer . He has also attended many seminars and workshops on exhibition curation and paper conservation. Bilash has curated exhibitions named ‘Chai ki chuski’ (2016), ‘Retables of St. Thomas Churches’ (2017) and Sreemesha Art Studio Annual Exhibition (2017). He is immensely interested in graffiti and street art. He attended Street Art Festival Delhi in 2014 as a part of a volunteering team.
AYASH RANJAN MOHANTY
Ayash Ranjan Mohanty, currently works as the Centre Coordinator of Utsha. Ayash has completed his M.B.A from EIILM University, Sikkim. He has worked in the IT sector over fifteen years.
RAJESH KUMAR PATNAIK
Rajesh Kumar Patnaik has completed a diploma in Electrical Engineering and is a final year student of B.Tech Engineering in Electrical and Electronics. He has worked as a site engineer in Unity Projektz in Visakhapatnam a branch of Machinery Engineering Services (MES) of Navy in 2015. He also worked as a Project Coordinator in an NGO called Prishan Foundation in 2016. He has also worked as a teaching staff in Odisha State Brigade School, Rayagada and as a visiting faculty in INIFD, Bhubaneswar. He is immensely interested in visual art. He has also participated in many art workshops and events in Odisha. He is a practicing artist in Bhubaneswar who works on pen & ink and experiments with different mediums.
SOUMYA RANJAN LENKA
Soumya Ranjan Lenka has a Bachelor in Fine Arts in painting from B. K. College of Art and Craft in 2017. He currently works at the Lalit Kala Akademi studio Bhubaneswar. His work explores painting, shadow puppetry and street art.
PINAKI RANJAN MOHANTY
Pinaki Ranjan Mohanty Is a freelance artist based on Bhubaneswar. He has studied in B.K. College of Art & Crafts and Viswa Bharati, Shantiniketan in Sculpture. Pinaki is currently practicing in Lalit Kala Regional Centre, Bhubaneswar. He is interested in Street art, sculpture and murals.
SATYABHAMA MAJHI
Satyabhama is an artist from Bhubaneswar (Odisha) practicing in varied expressions such as Painting, Installation art, Sculpting and Photography. Her strength is painting and she does a lot of concepts on Growing Urbanization. Apart from that, she also undertakes many socially relevant and much needed projects where she takes art as a medium to engage with the community.
SARVESWAR BISWAL
Sarveswar Biswal completed his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering. Left job from Mphasis to work independently. Started acting as junior actor at Odia tv series. And now working as Assistant Production Manager at Odia film industry mean while working on his own script for Short film and documentry film.
ARPITA AKHANDA
Arpita Akhanda is a visual artist based in Kolkata. She completed her Bachelor's and Master's in painting from Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan. She is engaged in new media practices.
DEBASHISH MISHRA
Debashish Mishra completed his Bachelor's Degree In Electronics and Telecommunication from C.V Raman College of Engineering, BPUT University.He left job from STI Technology for higher study. He is doing Master's Degree in Signal Processing In CET, BBSR.
CREATIVE TEAM
SACHIN DAS BURMA
Sachin has spent more than twenty years in advertising, having worked with agencies like Ushak Kaal, Contract, Bates, JWT, FCB Ulka and Leo Burnett India. He has been responsible for work on brands like Nokia, Slice, Mirinda, Mountain Dew, Hero Motocorp, Airtel, GSK, HCL, makemytrip.com, Tata Salt, Thums Up, Maaza, Minute Maid, Saint Gobain and Amazon.in. to name a few. His work for the 2012 Olympics ‘Cheer for India’ and the anthem for the World T20 for the Blind has got him lot of accolades. Sachin has won lot of awards at Indian Ad Shows (The Abbys), and international award shows like the Asia Adfest, D&AD, New York Festivals.
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SARAT NAYAK
Sarat is a freelance graphic designer, animator and video art editor. He lives and works in Bhubaneswar.
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ASHIS DHIR
Ashis is a well known news cameraman. He is currently pursuing his lifelong dream of conserving art, heritage, tribe and culture through his passion of photography. He has done small wildlife films and wildlife photographic coffee table books for Odisha wildlife division. He has worked on many documentaries for Chhattisgarh Govt. He also worked as a cameraman for leading news channels like ZEE NEWS and CNN-IBN7 for 18 years.
SABYASACHI PANIGRAHI
Well known for his quiet and consistent work, Sabyasachi Panigrahi served twenty years as senior camera person for NDTV from 1997 to 2017. In 1995, he produced the widely acclaimed documentary 'Diamond Triangle', on Odisha's Buddhist heritage for the national broadcaster Doordarshan. Sabyasachi has worked as assistant director and assistant camera person for eminent film makers Kumar Sahani, Biplab Ray Choudhury, Nirod Mahapatra, and Raju Misra on a number of feature films as well as documentaries on culture, archaeology and development. Since 2017 he is working as a freelancer in films and video production.
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BISWAJIT SAHANI
Biswajit is a young Odia artist and photographer who is currently pursuing his B.V.A in Applied Arts from B.K College of Art & Crafts, Bhubaneswar. Photography has always been a passion and medium of expression for Biswajit. Nature, cityscape as well as objects have been subjects for his photographic practice. He was one of the participants of the exhibition ‘Link - The never Ending Thread’. He has done a solo photography exhibition named exquisiteness through lens (2018) and a group exhibition named Kalpana held at Lalit Kala Academy about product campaigning(2018). He has also volunteered in many art events in Utsha including Kala-Setu, Barbil Art Project-3, to name a few.
SMRUTIKANT ROUT
Smrutikant Rout was born and brought up in Bhubaneswar. He had studied fine art from B.K. College of Art and Crafts, Bhubaneswar and did Masters in Sculpture from Utkal University of Culture. Rout is a site specific installation artist, film maker, stage designer and an art activist. He was honoured with Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi award and also recipient of junior Fellowship by the ministry of culture, government of India. He also exhibited his art works in other cities of India and abroad and also participated in many workshops and artist in residencies.
SAYANTAN MAITRA BOKA
Born in Kolkata, an architect by qualification, and a career in art by choice. He is a graduate from School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. As a scenographer, he has produced and designed several museum shows of international stature which led him to explore as a visual artist who does site-specific interventions with LAYOUT Collective. He is the Chief Coordinator of NGO, Shelter Promotion Council (India) through which he has curated and produced public art festivals in Sikkim, Nagaland and Meghalaya as the first of its kind which comprised a melange of new media art and contemporary art addressing issues of sociopolitical and environmental nature.