City websites devoted to art and culture are bringing like-minded people together.

In an effort to revive and promote Punjabi language and culture through poetry, art, books, music and films, the Academy of Punjab in North America (APNA) recently launched a new website, www.apnaorg.com. The new initiative will tackle the pressures on Punjabi language and culture created by the advancement of communication technology, says Safir Rammah, APNA's coordinator.

The new site is symptomatic of a larger trend where websites on arts, books and cultural topics are bringing like-minded people together on a common platform, initiating discussions and debates on a wide range of ideas. It is stimulating an interest to read while encouraging an easier and quicker way of disseminating information.

Log on to apnaorg.com and you will be inundated with anthologies of Punjabi poetry, a large collection of Punjabi music including Sufi, folk, film, pop and bhangra music albums and a variety of Punjabi and Punjab-related online books. APNA also has a Punjabi magazine Sanjh (Gurmukhi version from Ludhiana and Shahmukhi version from Lahore). Twenty-two new e-books have been uploaded on APNA web. To overcome geographical limitations, APNA transcribes essential Punjabi literature in all scripts and makes arrangements to publish them in India, Pakistan and abroad. Members are also regularly updated on the seminars, workshops and theatre activities.

A similar enterprise has been taken up by the Chandigarh Lalit Akademi that has launched its website www.lalitkalachandigarh.com. The site tries to foster cultural contacts through exhibitions, slide shows, lectures and workshops by inviting artists, art critics, art historians and intellectuals from various parts of the country and the world. Elaborate, easily accessible, aesthetically designed, the site, according to Diwan Manna, the Chairman of the Akademi, is designed to provide information on art, artists and related activities from Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali. It provides a detailed directory of art works, profiles and addresses of artists from the city; past and future events of the Akademi; scholarship holders' works, profiles and names of sponsors; memorabilia items produced by the Akademi; pictorial representation of the already organized events of the Akademi, online journals, downloadable forms for applications, information info about other art galleries, museums, and art institutes in the tricity; related links to important museums and art institutes of the world and a special feature which features different artist. Creation of websites, adds Diwan, has given a boost to development and promotion of art and artists, reaching out to art appreciators and buyers in different parts of the world, besides letting the public access art activities in the region.