Singapore: The Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society (SIFAS) is promoting its work covering Indian traditional and cultural art forms across Southeast Asia with plans to go global, according to the organisation's president K V Rao.

Established in 1949, the 77-year-old institution has evolved into a major centre of excellence for Indian classical arts.

"Our ambition is simple: deeper roots, wider wings," said Rao, who has been associated with the institution for nearly three decades.

"We want to remain deeply anchored in the traditions and rigour of Indian classical art forms while creating wider opportunities for our students, alumni, teachers, artistes and productions to reach audiences across the region and the world," he told PTI on Friday.

"Indianness today is a global phenomenon. India's cultural identity connects not only people of Indian origin but also draws the friends of India worldwide, enabling artistic traditions to be shared across geographies and generations," said Rao.

He has served as the president of SIFAS since 2019, and was conferred the 26th Mother Teresa International Award in Singapore last month, in recognition of his business and community leadership.

"The work SIFAS is doing to bring Indian arts to global audiences, with a particular focus on Asia, is distinctive," Rao said. "The next opportunity is to leverage this network by bringing together the Indian diaspora, artistes, teachers, students and like-minded cultural institutions around the world."

SIFAS today has nearly 2,000 members and an Academy with over 1,700 students pursuing 18 disciplines across Indian classical music, dance and visual arts. Its teaching and professional team comprises 27 full-time masters, with a total team strength of 40.

This report was published from a wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.