Kathmandu, Mar. 8: Nisha Sharma, active in the Nepali theatre sector regularly for over 40 years, is now Chancellor of Nepal Academy of Music and Drama. She is the first woman to lead the Nepal Academy of Music and Drama as its Chancellor.
Chancellor Sharma took the oath of office from Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’. She shared her plans including opportunities and challenges she may face during her four-year term at the Academy. She said that the government gave her the opportunity by respecting women’s strength and quality and ending the label that women cannot hold the responsibility of the senior positions.
The main responsibilities of the academy are to keep archives of music, art, and artistes, bring art and artistes living in the rural areas to the mainstream, restore disappearing music, drama and culture, educate more people in art through fellowship, and exchange Nepali art at the national and international levels by conducting various programmes.
She said that art and artistes should be embraced openly without any preconceived notion. She also asked all the artistes who do not trust the academy and its working mechanism to unite for the development of the music sector.
According to her, the theatre sector is currently flourishing. Acting and drama are the genres that require constant learning and effort, she said. Stating that lack of theatre and lack of support from government are the major challenges of the drama sector, she said that even the academy has not enough budget to help the artistes. Last year, the budget of over Rs. 50 million was allocated to the academy but that was not enough to accomplish the plan as they needed about Rs. 200 million, she said.
The Academy has a total of seven departments- music department, drama department, dance department, folk music department, classical and traditional music department and the stage department.
