RAPHAEL WARJRI: Born on 14th March 1961, has been painting and filmmaking since 1983. Founder of Riti Academy of Visual Arts in 1991. Curator, THOH-SHUN Art Camp: an annual art event, and in 2007 held at Dhaka under the aegis of the Indian High Commission, Dhaka. Participated various art camps all over India. Founding Member, North East Film & TV Producer – Directors’ Association, Meghalaya Film Makers’ Guild, MTDF (tourism sector), and Meghalaya People Environmental Rights Forum. Life Member, INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage), Meghalaya Adventure Association, Khasi Authors’ Society, East Khasi Hills District Art and Culture Society and Advisory Member, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). Directed several films with two nominations at Film South Asia 97- Katmandu, Nepal and 6th International Short Film Festival 98 – Dhaka, Bangladesh, Pacific Asia Tourism Fair 1996 – Singapore, National Tourism Festival – New Delhi 1995. Theatre Playwright – nominated at the 1st International Indigenous Theatre Festival Dhaka 2015. Founder, television news channel Media Plus, Writer and favourite past time is adventure. The Thoh Shun and Thwet Art camps have generated a platform for exposition of the art that originated from the region. He started the MAD Gallery in the heart of the city and within a short span of time it has helped to throw colour, created an impact and caters to the taste of the people. Even as MAD is an abbreviation for Make-A-Difference, it has an in-built and integrated idea of a taste, which in the Khasi language is MAD; liberal and free-wheeling interpretation and usage may ascribe a certain lunacy, a classically held belief of “a touch of the gods” to the gallery – that would also be appreciably tolerated! This metaphor is an apt name for a confluence, an ensemble, a matrix of creativity brought together through a conflation of passion and art…