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150 Cultural Centres to be set up this year

by Nadira Gunatilleke

The Human Resources Development, Education and Cultural Affairs Ministry will set up 150 cultural centres countrywide by the end of this year under its `cultural centre program'. Arrangements will be made to develop human resources through improving creativity of the youth engaged in cultural activities in these centres, Cultural Affairs Division sources said.

The sources said that 95 cultural centres have already been set up by the ministry so far and the main objective of this program is providing one cultural centre for each Divisional secretariat division. At present about 60,000 youth undergo training in these cultural centres and the ministry has taken steps to select talented youth from cultural centres and provide opportunities for them to take part in foreign cultural tours organised by the Ministry.

The Ministry has already sent two groups consisting of 16 and 25 youth to Korea and China respectively on cultural tours under cultural exchange agreements signed with those countries.

The Ministry will take over abandoned state buildings such as schools, repair them and set up these cultural centres. The ministry spends about Rs. 2 million for each cultural centre to provide facilities including books, audio visual equipment, musical instruments and sports equipment.

Each cultural centre consist of a small library, theatre and facilities for indoor and outdoor sports. These cultural centres offer different training courses for the general public including dancing training courses, music training classes, drama courses, seminars and workshops on photography, painting and sculpture.

The cultural centres also function as research and preservation centres for cultural characteristics such as folk dancing, folk songs and folk games that are peculiar to the relevant areas. Art exhibitions and sales are also conducted at these centres.

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