International Centre for Bengal Art

The facilities to conduct research on Bengal art in Bangladesh are relatively inadequate. The territory of historic Bengal lies partitioned between India and Bangladesh. It is a well known fact that for one or the other reasons the archaeological and historical sites and monuments as well as the few public and private collections of art objects and related institutions, are quite inaccessible to researchers from either side of the international border. In fact, the art heritage of Bengal as a whole is becoming gradually more and more remote to the people whose ancestors created it. Also, in the absence of any institutional initiative, the source materials now preserved beyond this subcontinent, in European and American collections, can hardly be exploited by interested scholars.

With a view to facilitate research on Bengal art,Professor Dr. Enamul Haque, Founder Director General (Rtd.) of the Bangladesh National Museum and Professor Zulekha Haque, Chairperson (Rtd.), Department of History, Eden University Girls College, Dhaka, donated their entire library along with the rich visual archives to be used as the nucleus of a research centre.

Thus was founded in 1995 The International Centre for Study of Bengal Art (ICSBA). It is managed by a registered private Board of Trustees. The collection with its main focus on various aspects of the Bengal art has now grown up to nearly 20,000 books and journals and 50,000 photographs, negatives, slides etc. The Centre is a non-profit, non-government and non-political organization. An International Advisory Committee (IAC), consisting of eminent scholars from Bangladesh, France, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, Austria, India, Pakistan, U.K., and U.S.A., guides the academic activities of the Centre. The Journal of Bengal Art is the annual periodical of the ICSBA. An International Congress on Bengal Art is organized every 2 years. So far, eight such congresses have been held.