Sahapedia undertakes cultural mapping of Pune

PUNE: Sahapedia, one of India’s foremost art organisations, principally supported by Tata Technologies Ltd, has undertaken the Pune Cultural Mapping project to document Pune’s cultural and natural resources from the past to the present. The information gathered will be available in October 2020 on a free bilingual (English and Marathi) digital map for building awareness, diversity, and ownership of the city.

These resources include museums and collections, heritage buildings and places of worship, traditions of food, music, dance, and literature and much more in Pune.

The resources also include the natural heritage of the city including water systems, gardens, and hills. These are being documented and reviewed by experts and practitioners in diverse fields such as artists, architects, city residents, institutions, historians, NGOs, and others. 

In the last five months, the project has partnered with 40 collaborators and has on-board more than 15 field and desk student interns in Pune. 

On Tuesday, the prototype of the web resource developed in partnership with MapmyIndia was shared. This prototype shows how the cultural and natural resources of Pune are being categorised and organised in ways that make it easy for residents and visitors to navigate to the information they are looking for. 

Sahapedia’s Project Director Neha Paliwal said, “We see the Pune cultural mapping project as a record of the city as a vibrant centre of knowledge -seeking, social and political reformation, and artistic creativity. It is a way for Punekars - those born here and those who have made the city their home - to identify what they value about the past and the present of their city, to share it publicly and hopefully think about what they want to do with it in the future.”