Dipankar Mukherjee
Dipankar Mukherjee is the Artistic Director of Pangea World Theater, an international theater in Minneapolis that is a progressive space for arts and dialogue. Dipankar is committed to creating work at the intersection of arts, politics and human rights. He is a professional director originally from Calcutta, India and has a 25-year history of directing. He brings with him international experience and intensive training in both classical literature and directing. He was one of the founding members of a professional theater in India and has directed plays in English, Hindi, Bengali and other Indian languages. He joined the artistic community of the Twin Cities as the Resident Director at the Guthrie Theater. As a director, he works professionally in India, England, Canada and the United States. Dipankar has worked at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, New World Theater, Alliance Theater and at the Young Vic in London. He collaborates extensively with contemporary and classical dancer/ choreographers in Canada, India and the U.S. to create multi-disciplinary performances. He has worked with Praxis International to create and direct a performance about domestic violence called Will You Hold My Child that is used for trainings all over the country. He is on the boards of Mizna, the Lake Street Council and Partners for Women’s Equality. He is also part of a task force across the Twin Cities called the Immigrant Refugee and Battered Women’s Task Force that works with relevant issues and is part of a Asian Pacific Islander Men’s Action Group to achieve gender equality among. Asian American and Pacific Islander men. Dipankar has been awarded the Twin Cities International Citizens Award by the Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul for contributions in the area of human rights and international co-operation as well as an Excellence for the Arts Award by the Council of Asian Pacific Minnesotans. He was honored by the Indian Association of Minnesota with an Arts Achievement Award. He is a recent recipient of the Bush Leadership Fellowship award to train with and study non-violence and truth and reconciliation methodologies in India and South Africa and is committed to using the knowledge gained to bring communities together through his art.