Arts & Culture Department
About the Department
Preservation, documentation, research, promotion, development and augmentation of arts and culture in the State continue to be the important objectives of the Arts & Culture Department. For achieving these objectives, a separate Department of Arts and Culture was created on 1st August 1988 to deal exclusively with the preservation of ancient arts, culture and heritage including promotion and expansion of cultural activities in the State of Meghalaya. The function of the newly created department is divided into three broad objectives namely, Performing Arts, Research and Library services. Under the Performing Arts we have the Institute of Arts & Culture. While Research includes Anthropological Research (Tribal Research Institute), Gazetteers, Historical and Antiquarian Studies, Museum, Archaeology and Archives. And Library Services include the State Central Library and the District Libraries etc. Since the department will soon be reaching fourteen years of its existence, it is, therefore, felt that important events and activities should not go unrecorded in this Chronicle.
Other Details
The Directorate of Arts and Culture is headed by the Director and assisted by two Compilers, the Museologist, the Archivist, the Archaeologist and the Librarian together with a skeleton ministerial staff. One Compiler is looking after the Gazetteer and Establishment branches and the other is looking after the Historical and Antiquarian Studies including the Rabindra Art Gallery at Brook site. The Museologist is in-charge of the State Museum branch and other peripheral works. The Archivist is in-charge of the State Archives and Institute of Arts and Culture. The, Audio-visual Archivist of Performing Arts is assisting the Archivist of State Archives in matter of performing arts etc. While the Archaeologist is in-charge of Archaeology branch and the Tribal Research Institute. And the Librarian is in charge of the State Central Library.
