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ARTIC CIRCLE FOR ALL SEASONS !By Joanne Pinto Pereira
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ARTIC CIRCLE FOR ALL SEASONS !By Joanne Pinto Pereira

Aug 23- Aug 29, 2025, JO-GO ART August 22, 2025 , by

Art Soup for the Soul
The world of Culture gave me a higher purpose that anchored me as I evolved during a test by fire. It was the rudder that helped me draw context and call out deceitful and manipulative behaviours. I have seen Art themes dwell on Identity, Women-focused empowering collaborations, Heritage, revival of Textiles in amazing old world spaces or digital formats, nostalgia, memory keeping, murals, and AI-powered immersive art, interactive tech that blends Music digital Art (a big hit for premium brands like Johnny Walker). This has led me to share the joy that I have received to encourage you to do the same. To Reinvent Yourself and Stay Grounded with the Art.

Rain of Programming
 It had been pouring incessantly for three days in Mumbai and Goa, and the city is basking in the abundance of Art programming. The litmus test of Mumbai city’s functioning is its lifeline, the trains, of which the Central and Harbour lines caved in due to flooding. A brief respite takes me to a gallery en route to city-centric programming by Avid Learning. The topic is Icons that are the spine of daily living in Mumbai, cricket maidans. ( I walked via Oval Maidan and back), Trains (ditto to reach) and soaked in (not the rain) the Fort area for a larger bit.

Culture Shower
 There is a story attached to each railway station, beginning with the first line commissioned from VT to Thane in 1853. Author, Rail Historian, and Newsman Rajendra B. Aklekar shares interesting nuggets and can go on and on. For us who use public transport, the activities of clanging cymbals and regular bonding are a given. As I step out of the restored 160-year-old Bandora station, I wish each commuter would savour the detailing, which has vanished, say from the Central Line, instead of risking life and limb by lunging for a seat as the train approaches the end of the line during peak hours.
The Fort, the real one whose border would be present-day D. N. and M. G.Road right along Rampart Row, doesn’t have a trace left. Zilch, not a post or a plaque, it was razed to the ground. The others, like Sewri, Sion, and Mahim, are in dire shape and are a shadow of themselves, while Bandra Fort has been made into a project that the residents have angst about. Further down is the Portuguese-built Bassein Fort, which tells stories of how the British felt the need to secure the coastal area, shares Associate Professor, Dept. of History, and Vice-Principal (Arts), Sophia College for Women, Dr. Rashna Poncha.
Ayaz Menon, Sportswriter, Columnist, and Commentator, is one of the panelists who has relayed the heart of cricket. Over the decades, I have known him as a fellow journo and a media watcher. His description of the ascent of every cricketer who has made it to international glory, including our Master Blaster, Sachin Tendulkar, was the urban compulsion and necessary participation in gully cricket. It was not at all unusual for the ball to smash the ground floor window panes or a whacking “sweep shot” land on a higher floor to the dismay of the aunties who had a heap of the tennis balls and an absconding view outside. Did anyone dare claim, ball please??

St Andrew’s Zonals
 In my backyard, hotting up is St Andrew’s Zonals culture, nurturing and nourishment, across all streams of performing arts. The poster competition leads to the cover of the program booklet. The Choirs done over a Sunday of almost 200 musicians competing hit the high note with their sensory feast. The absolute benchmark to encourage talent and community building while preserving a tradition for seven decades.

Never Enough Art
 It is a fresh feeling of FOMO when I can’t attend the fabulous programming of NCPA and SOI, and the IF.BE or the series of Alfred Hitchcock at the Regal Cinema. I am covering up as being needy, as you can’t be greedy enough with this TDH of Art, Heritage, and Culture. The city spoils you for choice. A lot is so accessible for the taking. Yet, when I do, my short longcuts across the historic Azad Maidan or the Oval reward me with the toll of the Rajabai Clock Tower. This evening, I marvel at the majesty of the High Court structure that leads me out through the nostalgic NCC Girls A Division, which often had me as a college student reporting in to.

Art Compass
 Of course, there comes the lure of a gallery around the corner, it’s an internalised process. I have mentally charted and propelled myself, and before I know it, I have crossed a road to this magnificent relic that has outlived newer construction by light years in design and structure. In this case, it’s my favourite theme, as I still foolishly look skyward to the foliage which I recognise from the leaves (mainly in the rainy season) or the flowers strewn below during the season.

“Drink the Light, Be the Light”
 Armed with an umbrella to combat the August rain, I find myself looking at this painting at Akara Contemporary at the Colaba crossroads. It has the layered munificence of Umesh PK, “Looking at a Tree, Seeing a Forest,” on till 27 September. The Stranger gallery around the corner is no stranger to me. It beckons, but I have lost time with my rambling and feel like a motif, an art gypsy, Jopsy, who is drawn to the superpower of the Art World. More about this as I get set up on ‘Substack.’ Artree or my alternate choice of ArtTable would give shape to these learnings of almost 60 columns for the Goan Observer, the decades of immersion that have led up, and the fire that the future holds for the domain. Watch out for the details, till then follow in my footsteps and colour your vision with the wealth of Art, Culture, and Heritage.

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