This seven week long collaborative effort hosted by British Council India is trying to make art less elite and accessible to all, writes Supriya Raman

As a part of the UK India Year of Culture, the British Council Library has come up with a unique interactive way to celebrate art and story-telling. The Saptan Project , which was launched earlier this month in association with the British animation studio Aardman, aims at making art accessible to all via crowd-sourced story telling.

The Saptan Project was launched with a few lines that opened a story, these lines were then illustrated by seven artists from UK and India (Saloni Sinha from Bengaluru, Adrita Das and Priyesh Trivedi from Mumbai, Gavin Strange and Tom Mead from Bristol, Gemma Correll from Suffolk, and Janine Shroff from London.) Each artist made three art-works based on these lines and it was accessible online.

After which, each week, more sentences are released of The Saptan Story. These sentences are picked out from the scores of entries that are submitted by people online. The seven artists then make art-work to accompany the selected lines. All the works are available online and opened for public voting. So far on its fourth week, the seven week long project (it ends on September 12) will have 49 pieces of art at the end of it along with one crow-sourced story.

The visual results so far have been quite as they are often drawn in the signature style of the artist they represent. Check them out below.

Week One
I found it hard to get over my broken heart, I thought I never would. Then one night, by the moonlit river, something happened that changed everything.

Priyesh Trivedi

Saloni Sinha

Week Two
As the moonbeams danced to a heavenly beat upon the silvery water, I gazed to the stars and contemplated my future. It looked bleak on introspection, when out of the water arose an apparition.

Janine Shroff

Tom Mead

Week Three
“It was a woman, as translucent as fog and as ethereal as a dream. She smiled at me and whispered in a voice as soft as a dewdrop “Love once lost can be regained, but are you willing to pay the price?”

Gavin Strange

Gemma Correll

Week Four
Before I could utter an answer, my heart made the choice. How she heard its silent cry, I do not know. The lake opened and a chasm appeared. I was sucked into a whirlpool of water, light and chaos.

Adrita Das

Priyesh Trivedi

To participate in the project, click here