In recognition of her efforts, she has been awarded a Woman Achiever's award by FICCI/FLO 2013, Woman Achiever of the year by TimesGroup & ITC, in 2008 [1] and a Fellowship from the Asia Leadership Fellow Program and Japan Foundation for research and development of the project: Unity in Diversity: Envisioning Community Building in Asia and Beyond, Tokyo, in 2007 [2] in recognition of her work in encouraging knowledge, understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity.
Sarkar Ellias has been invited to speak at various venues, chaired the New Moves Festival discussion with 10 Asian women artists in Glasgow as well as other fora in London, San Francisco, New York, Tokyo, Teheran, Dacca, Lahore, Karachi, Delhi, Santiniketan, Kolkata and Mumbai in the last many years.
[citation needed] Bina (Sarkar Ellias) soon after graduation with Honours in English at Scottish Church College, Calcutta University, began as a freelance writer to Desmond Doig's popular journal, Junior Statesman; she was employed next, as assistant editor to T.M.
For 25 years, Gallerie has upheld unity in diversity through artistic reflections via the visual and performing arts, poetry, essay, photography, cinema and travel stories, narratives that reveal a world that is essentially one, even as politicians divide us.
She also curated a section of the Pune Biennale 2017, mounting 'Migration'... a series of photography, films and poetry in six shipping containers, besides sculptures in open space.
International Gallerie was conceived and founded by Bina Sarkar Ellias in 1997, as a platform for addressing universal socio-political/cultural issues as interpreted through excellence in the arts from global regions.
[4] “A magnificent production as well as an especially forceful presentation.” ——Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate, India/USA/UK “Reading Gallerie is like leafing through the contemporary Louvre... in your living room.
It’s an honour to be published in its pages.” ——Gulzar, poet, lyricist, filmmaker, India “I didn’t see how Gallerie could possibly be better than its first issue, but each successive one proves me wrong!” ——Adrian Piper, philosopher and conceptual artist, Germany Bina Sarkar was married in Tokyo to photographer and award-winning documentary filmmaker Rafeeq Ellias[5] and they have two children; Raoul Ellias, a successful IT professional in the US and Yuki Ellias, an actor-director, who played Hermea in Tim Supple's "Midsummer Night's Dream", and has received a "Best Actress Award" from her solo performance in "Elephant in the Room", which played at the Fringe Festival, Edinburgh, 2017, for three weeks.