FINAL-UNFRAMING THE IMAGE-BOOK DESIGN

UNFRAMING THE IMAGE

HOUSING ART IN NEW KOLKATA

3rd - 4th November 2017

Contents

Pages

Programme 1–2

Preamble 3 - 4

Profile of Jogen Chowdhury 5

Inaugural Address 6 -10
Jogen Chowdhury

Profile of Swapan Kumar Chakravorty 11

Visualising Houses of Art for a New Kolkata 12 – 18
Swapan Kumar Chakravorty

Profile of Rajesh Purohit 19

Organisation and Management of Museums 20 – 22
Rajesh Purohit

Profile of Mungo Campbell 23

Through the Eye of the Nilgai 24 – 26
Mungo Campbell

Profile of Sujata Sen 27

Profile of Pankaj Panwar 28

Profile of Tasneem Zakaria Mehta 29

On Curating 30 – 36
Tasneem Zakaria Mehta

Profile of Sushma S Bahl 37

Art Curation: Principles and Practices 38 – 42
Sushma K. Bahl

Pages

Profile of Masayuki Taga 43

Talking Points : Speech Delivered at KMOMA Symposium 44
Masayuki Taga 45

Profile of Poulomi Das 46 – 48
49
What do Museums Need today and How Are We Addressing Needs?
Poulimi Das 50 – 52
53
Profile of Saroj Ghosh
54 – 56
Creating New Museums in Story-telling Format 57
Saroj Ghose
58 – 62
Profile of Priyadarshi Patnaik 63

The Museum and Art Practice: An Outsider’s Perspective 64 – 67
Priyadarshi Patnaik 68
69
Profile of Arundhati Mitter
70 – 74
Role of Museums in the Interpretation of Art 75 - 105
Arundhati Mitter

Profile of Baisakhi Mitra

Sensing Art : Multi-sensory Interpretations in Museums
Baisakhi Mitra

Profile of Chhatrapati Dutta

Profile of Sanchayan Ghosh

Emerging Trends in Public Art Practice
Sanchayan Ghosh

Symposium Gallery

Inauguration PROGRAMME
Welcome Speech
Keynote Address Friday, 3rd November 2017

Sri. Sovan Chatterjee, Hon’ble Mayor, Kolkata
Jogen Chowdhury, Chairman, KMOMA
Swapan Kr. Chakravorty, Managing Trustee, KMOMA

Session – I Organisation And Management Of Museums
Speakers Rajesh Purohit, Director Indian Museum, Kolkata
Mungo Campbell, Deputy Director, The Hunterian,
University of Glasgow
Moderator Swapan Kr. Chakravorty, Managing Trustee, KMOMA
Q & A Session
Art Curation
Session – II Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, Managing Trustee and
Speakers Honorary Director of Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum,
Mumbai
Sushma Bahl, Independent Arts Adviser, Writer and
Curator of Cultural Projects
Sujata Sen, Trustee and Chairperson of Programme
Moderator Committee, KMOMA

Q & A Session Art Viewership
Masayuki Taga, Consul General of Japan, India
Session – III Jogen Chowdhury, Chairman, KMOMA
Speakers Mungo Campbell, Deputy Director, The Hunterian,
University of Glasgow
Moderator

Q & A Session

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PROGRAMME

Saturday, 4th November 2017

Speakers Poulomi Das, Consultant for Museums & Heritage
Spaces
Saroj Ghose, Former Director General of National
Council of Science Museums

Chair Sujata Sen, Trustee and Chairperson of Programme
Committee, KMOMA

Q & A Session

Session – IV Creating New Museums And Meeting Challenges

Speakers Priyadarshi Patnaik, HOD, Humanities And Social
Sciences, IIT Kharagpur

Arundhati Mitter, Director, Flow India

Baisakhi Mitra, Director Rabindra Bharati University
Museum, Kolkata

Chair Swapan Kr. Chakravorty, Managing Trustee, KMOMA

Q & A Session

Session – V Role Of Museums In The Interpretation Of Art

Speakers Chhatrapati Dutta, Principal, Government
College of Art and Craft, Calcutta

Sanchayan Ghosh, Associate Professor, Department
of Painting, Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan

Chair Priyadarshi Patnaik, Head of the Department,
Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Kharagpur

Q & A Session 3:50 pm – 4:05 pm

Vote of thanks

Venue : The Gateway Hotel, 1930 Rajdanga Main Road, Sector - G, East Kolkata
Township, Kolkata - 700107

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Preamble

Kolkata needs new spaces for housing art: its own, the country’s
and the world’s. The existing museums and galleries with
permanent collections are woefully inadequate for a city that
prides itself on its vibrant cultural life. Currently, Kolkata is hardly
a priority destination for cultural tourists.

While thinking of the museums of the future, we also need to think
of public spaces that would connect with traditional artisans and
craft as well as genres of visual art that are living and evolving
across the world.

KMOMA hosted a conference in 2017 that discussed this broad
issue. Views on the kind of big museum the city needs, smaller
museums for niche viewership, art fairs, commerce in art, museum
finance and operations, new media, developing art viewership,
planning spaces for public art, and strategies for art education
were discussed over two days. Each session was followed by
lively exchange of comments and replies.

The conference aimed at practising artists, art scholars, teachers
and students of art, interested viewers, curators, museologists,
town planners, developers and those connected with culture
tourism. Speakers and topics covered most of these fields, and we
are happy that we have been able to publish the proceedings.

3

4

Jogen Chowdhury

Professor Jogen Chowdhury is an
eminent Indian painter and an
important artist of contemporary
India. He graduated from the
Government College of Art and
Craft,Calcuttaandsubsequently
studied at the École Nationale
Supérieure des Beaux-Arts,
Paris. He is a member of the
Calcutta Painters Group. His first
collection of poems is Hridoy
Train Beje Othey. He was Curator
of the Art Gallery of Rashtrapati
Bhavan, New Delhi. He founded
Gallery 26 and Artists’ Forum in
New Delhi in 1975 along with
some leading painters of the
city. Professor Chowdhury was
awarded the Prix le France
de la Jeune Peinture in Paris
and received an award at the
Second Biennale of Havana,
Cuba. He won the Kalidas Samman by the Government of Madhya
Pradesh. His contribution in inspiring young artists of India is immense. Jogen
Chowdhury has been elected member of Rajya Sabha. He is currently the
Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of The Kolkata Museum of Modern Art
(KMOMA).

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Inaugural Address

Jogen Chowdhury

Namaskar.

I welcome you all. The dignitaries who are present here on the dais and the artists,
lovers of art, speakers and participants of the seminar who are in the audience. I
specially welcome our Chief Guest, Sri Sovan Chatterjee, Mayor of Kolkata and
the Minister of Housing and Environment, Government of West Bengal.

We are happy that KMOMA, Kolkata Museum of Modern Art could organise this
seminar on “Unframing the Image : Housing Art in New Kolkata”, which I consider
an important event for us being the body entrusted with the implementation of
the museum project. It is also equally important for the citizens of Kolkata.

It is a fact that in general our public have very little knowledge and awareness
regarding the purpose or necessity of a museum. It is unfortunate that visual art
in a deeper sense is not so well understood by the common people as we might
expect. Though throughout the world, and in India in particular, there is a great
tradition of visual arts such as painting, sculpture, architecture etc., for which
we are proud. Yet it is sad to note that in comparison to the West and even
some of the Eastern or South Eastern Asian countries, our country lags far behind
in establishing new museums, particularly museum of arts. In Western countries
there are world class art museums. Paris is known for its great museums like
Louvre, Musee Rodin, Musee Picasso, Musee Guimet, Museum of Impressionists.
Amsterdam is known for Rijk Museum and Van Gogh Museum. London has the
National Gallery of Art, National Portrait Gallery, British Museum, Victoria and Albert
Museum, Tate Gallery and Tate Modern. Florence is known for Uffitzi (Uffizi) and
for Museums of Renaissance period paintings and sculptures. New York has the
renowned Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art. Vienna has
multiplied its museum buildings, very recently. Berlin has a beautiful museum of
Contemporary Arts in the renovated old railway station called Museum Bahnhof.
Even in recent times countries of Asia like China, Japan, Thailand, South Korea,
Singapore, and even Bangladesh have created museums of contemporary art
of international standard. A few months back I visited Museum of Contemporary
Art (MOCA) in Bangkok, where Thailand has displayed the best of its country’s
art in a beautifully designed building. China has already hundreds of museums of
different categories and a couple of years back announced that it will establish
500 more museums in different parts of the country. Museums attracts tourists.
MIllions of tourists from all over the world visit the famous museums like Louvre,

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British Museum, Uffitzi and Rijk. They make the cities lively and vibrant. Museums are one of the
main sources of foreign exchange to tourist inflow. At the same time, museums are institutions of
education. In the West it is frequently seen that school children are crowding the museum rooms
studying the works of art, copying and painting them. They learn history, their culture, tradition
and art – all at the same time. I think, India and all states of India needs to focus their attention
towards creation of museums of high quality and of International standard. It is great news and
a matter of pride that in India, Government of Bihar has very recently opened Bihar Museum
having 3 lakhs sq.ft. of space spread on a 15 acre plot of land in the center of Patna city, with
a cost in excess of Rs. 500 crores. It has been designed by a well known Japanese architect.

Kolkata was the most prominent city of British India. Its history of art and culture are well known.
Bengal was in the forefront of Indian renaissance of art. Since 19th century, Bengal has contributed
enormously to Indian art. Works of Abanindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath Tagore, Sunayani
Devi, Rabindranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, Nandalal Bose, Ramkinker Baij, Benodebehari Mukherjee,
Somenath Hore, Meera Mukherjee, Chittaprasad, Haren Das, K.G. Subramanyan, Paritosh Sen,
Ganesh Pyne, Bikash Bhattacharjee, Kartick Pyne have greatly contributed to the contemporary
art of India. Moreover, we have Woodcuts, etchings of Chitpur, Kalighat pats, and artworks of a
new generation of young working artists. But it is unfortunate that during the last 70 years since
Independence, we have no place, no museum yet in the city. We have no possibility to see our art
treasures anywhere in the city. Most of our artworks have been bought and taken out of Bengal.
Seventy years have passed, but we could not build a museum where such works of art could have
been displayed for the public.

KMOMA, Kolkata Museum of Modern Art is our dream project. We are determined and geared up to
establish a museum of contemporary art. It will not only house the art of Bengal, but works of Indian
artists as well as art of Southeast Asia and from all over the world. The Government of West Bengal,
particularly our dear Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has extended her wholehearted support to
KMOMA in establishing a museum of international standard. It is our aspiration that this will be part
of her Biswa Banga initiative to bring Bengal on the world stage. The design of the museum has
been prepared by Herzog & DeMeuron, the internationally famous architects who designed the
Tate Modern of London.

We have already received considerable support from the State Government, financially and
otherwise. We have also received full support from Kolkata Municipal Corporation and Bidhannagar
Municipal Corporation. It is a matter of regret that despite our sincere efforts, the Government of
India has not yet come forward to support this iconic project of West Bengal. Our efforts to get the
financial support from the Government of India will continue. We hope that the support given by the
State and Central Governments and all art loving people will make KMOMA to be a reality soon. We
hope that the attractive architecture of KMOMA will be a landmark of this city.

Today, against this background, we all have gathered here to participate in this seminar to discuss
and disseminate ideas and knowledge related to museums, particularly on museums of art. We
have a number of eminent artists, art critics, lovers of art, patrons, museum specialists who have
come here as speakers. Their deliberations on various issues on museums, its design, construction,
management, philosophy, education, public participation etc., will sterngthen our efforts. We hope
that the seminar will be a successful and purposeful one.

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Viewership: In India and
KMOMA

Jogen Chowdhury

The first known museum was opened at the University of Alexandria in Egypt in the 3rd Century BCE.
Since then the culture of museum has spread throughout the world. The role of museums is to collect
and preserve objects of historical, religious, cultural or artistic importance. It is important to preserve
all such objects in a scientific manner for study, research, education and also for enjoyment. I think
museums of the arts, particularly of the fine arts or museums of paintings, sculptures or any other
variety of visual art objects are most popular and well known among the museums. When we talk
about museums, we instantly think of great museums like the Louvre of Paris, the British Museum of
London, the Rijk Museum of Amsterdam, the Uffizi Gallery of Florence, the Hermitage of Leningard
or the Museum of Vatican of Rome. Millions of people visit such museums every year to see, study
and to enjoy the artworks displayed there. People spend hours to see and study great works of art
displayed in those museums. A few years back when I was visiting the British Museum as well as the
National Art Gallery of London, I was amazed to see the large number of visitors, in their thousands,
crowding the museums, similar to the crowds we see in our Book Fair of Kolkata. Many of them were
tourists and of course, many were children. It made me think: when will we have such museums in
our country and also such crowds ? It is a dream I had cherished. Many others share this dream to
have a museum in our city of Kolkata, which we call the ‘Cultural City’ of India.

Museums of the past were uninspiring, doing little more than just storing or preserving historical or art
objects, only for visitors who had an academic interest. Participation of general public was almost
excluded. At present, role and purpose of museums has been redefined. Museums have become the
cultural conscience of the nation. Present day museums are open to all, to people of all categories,
artists, art researchers, academics, art writers and critics, art collectors, gallery owners, historians, art
lovers and everyone including ordinary people. Tourists who come to visit a city flock to the famous
art museums, and the art museums are often the first choice for them. For example, when one visits
Paris, one will surely make a visit to the Louvre, one of the largest museums of the world. A visit to the
Louvre will be in their priority list along with Eiffel Tower, Mont Martre, Notre Dame Church, a cruise
on the river Seine and a visit to Pompidou Centre, Picasso Museum and other places of interests. It is
no different in other cities too, like in Amsterdam, London, St. Petersburg, Florence where tourists also
choose to visit the famous and established museums as their main destination, their first priority. In
case of the local public or citizens such visits are more casual and depend on special programmes
and exhibitions organised by the museums. They choose according to their preference and time –
may be on holidays along with their family, friends and children to relax and enjoy the works of art
at leasure. Sometimes we find there are serious academic who come to the museum with a small
note book, noting down the facts and figures of works of art – but who may, unfortunately forget
to look at the gracefulness of the beautiful artworks. Sometimes there are real art lovers who look
at the images, which are great and splendid, for a longer duration, take photographs, continue to
stay in the museum until the last bell rings before closing. Nowadays, in the developed countries, we
frequently find school children are crowding the museum halls, sitting on the floor, accompanied
by their teachers, busy copying the works of great masters, such as a painting of Rembrandt or

8

Picasso. Instead of looking at artworks in a text book, children find it more interesting to see the
original works and copy them, note down anecdotes relating to them and hence become aware
of the socio-political history related to these works. At the same time, young sensitive artistic minds
will surely react subconsciously to the artistic elements and temper of the works. After all a child’s
first encounter with the original works of art will definitely encourage him/her to appreciate works
of art in course of time. There are museums of various types like museums of natural history, science
museums, historical museums, museums of archaeology, museums of textiles, museums of folk and
tribal arts – and so on. There are museums on almost every subject – besides museums of art and
culture. I think the museums of fine art, i.e. of history of art and culture are more popular among all
museums because of their creativity, attractive visual quality as well as their narrative qualities. In the
present time, as I have already mentioned, the character of museums has been redefined. Their
mission, their functions, facilities attached to them and their strategies have changed to suit the
changing world. At the same time, the expectations of the visitors have changed. Contemporary
museums are considered to be an essential component of modern society. It has become probably
the centre of cultural activities of a city, a popular public place where people wish to spend relaxed
fruitful time. The museums can encourage, promote and foster the best of the educational, cultural
and democratic ideals through various programmes and activities. Ultimately they serve the larger
community and reach out to every group of people of the society like teachers, students, scholars,
common people and children and can promote creativity, better understanding of heritage, art,
aesthetics and culture in the interest of progress and development. We all know that museums in
India - Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata, were all visualised, planned and established by the British,
probably inspired by the treasures of art and artifacts found in this country of great traditions.

The Indian Museum of Kolkata was established more than 200 years ago and it shows how best earlier
museum experts conceived an ideal museum of art and archaeology, and arrange its utilisation of
space and display. Today, we find that it is just showcasing of art objects in a closed manner in a
traditional way without much breathing space. As we have already mentioned, currently, the idea
and planning of a museum, particularly a museum of contemporary art will surely be different than
that of a museum of an earlier era, in view of the changed time and changed social environment.
It is true that a contemporary art museum in India needs to be different from any contemporary art
museum of the West becacuse of socio-cultural differences. It is also true that characteristics and
expectations of a probable visitor to museums in India will not be similar to that of a Western country.
Their demands and requirements from a museum and their socio-cultural interests are also different
from that of a Western museum visitor. Hence we will have to be cautious and consider such factors
while we build a new museum in India. Museums, besides planning their collection of objects and
their display, need to conduct various academic, historical and art oriented programmes, including
exhibitions of its own collection and exhibitions on loan from other Indian museums or from abroad.
Present museums should not be stale institutions. They need to be vibrant and lively, with day-to-
day happenings related to progressive and creative ideas and schemes, with interesting visuals.
Museums will have to cater to the public, more particularly to the younger generation, to children
and all genders and also to women, in all such creative and imaginative matters so that they are
able to learn to dream a new world. It is important that the children and young men and women
from our villages too become major visitors and participants of all activities of future museums. We
ignore them at our peril.

In any contemporary museum, the architecture should have enough free space, a space to move
around. The museum should have facilities such as library, academic section for study and research,
seminar and conference rooms, restoration lab, storage, book-cum-souvenir shop, cafetaria-cum-

9

restaurant for food, drink and relaxation, auditorium, open-air amphitheatre, children’s corner,
photography section, first aid medical facility for emergency purpose, office and administrative
section, including trained museum staff and security guards besides having permanent exhibition
galleries and temporary exhibition halls with spacious lobby and a reception desk. Museums also
should have guesthouses for visiting art scholars, artists and guests for seminars, exhibitions and
workshops. We will have to ensure that all facilities are visitor and public friendly, planned and
beautifully designed. Such a place, I am sure, will attract the public, tourists, and children to come
and visit. A major source of revenue of museums in Western countries is its visitors. Particularly,
countries like France, Italy, Holland get a large amount of foreign exchange from foreign visitors. The
point I want to emphasise is that a top quality museum properly equipped with all facilities could
be a major attraction for foreign visitors, and would be a source of foreign exchange inflow. I think
having a ‘Friends of Museum’ is a good idea and a welcoming approach. This would induce artists,
patrons and art enthusiasts to become loyal stakeholders.

I could say, being Founder Trustee of KMOMA, that the proposed museum of KMOMA will considerably
fulfil all the requirements of a contemporary museum of 21st century India. Its architecture is based
on India’s socio-cultural elements, having enough space for various art and cultural activities, with
big open space like a courtyard where large scale happenings could be held or installations and
public art could be held displayed. Its ground floor pillars are to be constructed on the basis of
Indian architecture. The proposed museum has been designed by the famous architect, ‘Herzog &
de Meuron’, who have also designed the Tate Modern of London.

KMOMA has plans to collect and display works of Art of Bengal as well as works of other Indian artists.
It will also propose to bring visiting exhibitions from all over the world for our Indians to see. We also
wish to have Indian and international art workshops and interactive art seminars.

It is essential to impart knowledge and educate our own citizens to understand the importance of
museums in our society since museums are, at the present time, an essential component of any
society and culture. We will have to accept this fact that even now, after 70 years of freedom,
education has not yet reached our whole population. I presume this museum of future will also be
an instrument of imparting knowledge to the society in a broad way, and will help in creating a
relationship of people with art and culture.

We need a revolution of museum culture in our society.

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Swapan Kumar Chakravorty

Professor Swapan Kr. Chakravorty,
Managing Trustee of KMOMA, is
a Distinguished Professor in the
Humanities, Presidency University,
Kolkata. He has served as Professor of
English, Jadavpur University, Director
General of the National Library of
India, Kolkata, and Secretary and
Curator of Victoria Memorial Hall,
Kolkata. He is an alumni of Calcutta
Boys’ School, Presidency College,
Kolkata, and Jadavpur University.
He obtained his DPhil from Oxford
University. He joined the English
Department at Jadavpur in 1985
and was Head from 2005 to 2007.
He has been Joint Director, School
of Cultural Texts and Records.
Professor Chakravorty has also
taught at the Ramakrishna Mission
Residential College, the University of Calcutta and University Malaya. His
important literary contributions include Society and Politics in the Plays of
Thomas Middleton, Print Areas: Book History in India, Movable Type: Book
History in India, Founts of Knowledge: Book History in India (edited with Abhijit
Gupta), Bangalir ingreji sahityacharcha. He edited the book Mudraner
sanskriti o bangla boi and was awarded the Naransingha Dass Prize by the
University of Delhi, 2010. He was also the editor of Nameless Recognition:
The Impact of Rabindranath Tagore on Other Indian Literatures etc.

11

Visualising Houses of Art for a
New Kolkata

Swapan Kumar Chakravorty

The first person to moot the idea of a museum for the Royal Asiatic Society’s
collection in 1814 was Nathaniel Wallich, a Danish doctor with a surgeon’s
diploma from Copenhagen. The Indian Museum in Kolkata hence started life in
the Royal Asiatic Society. However, it was only in 1866 that the Indian Museum
Act was passed after the Society was persuaded to hand over its natural history
and archaeological collections to the trustees of the proposed Imperial Museum.
The current building on Chowringhee, designed by Walter Granville, was ready
by 1875, but sections could be curated and opened to the public in phases from
April 1878. The first curator appointed in September 1866 was John Anderson, a
Scotsman who was a doctor by training, and a professor of comparative anatomy
at Calcutta Medical College. He did a splendid job of ordering the natural history
collection of the Society’s Museum. Apart from the archeological specimens
excavated by such pioneers as the Scotsman Buchanan Hamilton, the natural
history section is unsurprisingly still the glory of the museum.

The museum grew to be one of the best lodging for art in the city. Archaeological
specimens, unmoored from their religious and political contexts, could be regarded
as artefacts of aesthetic value. The Government College of Art and Craft (earlier
The Government School of Art) was shifted to a new building on 28 Chowringhee
Road, adjacent to the museum in early 1892. Under Ernest B. Havell, Principal
from 1896 to 1905, the institution initiated a movement in recovering Indian styles
of painting and sculpture, the great painter Abanindranath Tagore was Vice
Principal for a decade (1905-15), and his uncle Rabindranath held an exhibition of
his paintings there in February 1932. Until recent times there used to be a passage
that connected the College to the Art Gallery in the Museum so that students
could learn from displayed works and, on rare occasions, even borrow them.

Nevertheless, the Indian Museum has been popularly associated more with
such wonders as the Egyptian mummy, the remains of the largest tortoise dating
back to the Pliocene period, and the freak specimens of creatures preserved in
bottles of chemicals than with the fabulous Basawan gouache of Maznun and his
Emaciated Horse (c. 1600) or the Bharhut gateway (c. 2nd century BCE) or the Pahari
miniatures. One could fault colonial ethnography for the association, emphatically
celebrated in the Calcutta International Exhibition held on its precincts and on

12

Indian Museum, Kolkata

the maidan for four months starting December 1883. It was a grand
exposition in which Australia, and countries of Asia, North America and
Europe were represented. But there was a genetic bond as well. The
zoological, botanical and geological collections of the Asiatic Society
had formed the core of the museum before the ‘Imperial’ seal induced
large donations from India and Britain. Not for nothing were the pioneers
of the institutions surgeons and anatomists. The Indian sage Ramakrishna
Paramhansa recalled that once when he was ill, he had prayed to Kali
to string his bones like the human skeleton he had seen in the sucite,
pieced together and tied with cords. Sucite was Ramakrishna’s manner
of referring to the Society. He called it marā sucite, the society of the
dead—dead form or matter, I am not quite sure.

If ghosts could jostle, Kolkata’s heritage structures housing art objects— Nathaniel Wallach
the Indian Museum, the Victoria Memorial Hall, the Government House or John Anderson
Raj Bhavan, the Asiatic Society, the National Library, the Tagore residence
at Jorasanko, the Town Hall, the Marble Palace—should have a crowd
of them jostling past convinced spotters. I have no reason to disbelieve
them, though the bodiless dead did not call on me when I chanced
to work in two of these spooked lodgings. I take these ghostly dwellings
in Kolkata as symptomatic of the metonymic link in the city between
houses of art and the culturally dead. ‘Culturally dead’, since similar
objects of art in functioning houses of worship in the city, however old
and crumbling, are not associated with death, but with the potency of
miraculous births and cures. Curators of art exhibitions and museums also
could speak for ghosts. Trailokyanath Mukhopadhyay, Assistant Curator
at the Indian Museum, compositor of the catalogue of the certain exhibits
of the Calcutta International Exhibition was one of the earliest and best
writers of ghost stories in Bengali.

The reason for this spectral curse plaguing houses of art is not far to seek. As with public architecture
and urban statuary sponsored by governments both in pre- and post-independence India, the point
of the ordered display of artistic wonders was to reinforce the distance that separated the mess of
urban life and the untidy cityscape from the privileged preserves of political and economic power.
As city parks and water bodies are handed over to commercial sponsors and the unwashed are

13

Basawan Maznun and his Emaciated Horse Bharhut Gateway

locked out, one senses the same denial of access returning in a corporate guise. Gated communities
are promised exclusive access to sanitised open spaces and relief from garbage, beggars, peddlers
and stray canines, Environment Impact Assessments for built-up areas above a certain measure are
made stringent in the name of the environment, while the city’s air keeps getting poisoned and its
water depleted.

What Kolkata needs are new lodgings for new and even old art, or old structures transformed to
house new art, but those which are less aloof, more welcoming of citizens and strangers, places that
are pleasing and functional yet resonant of the lives of the city’s cultural stakeholders. Art galleries
have mushroomed in the city, especially since the liberalization of the economy has freed gallery
owners from accepting slush money from tax-dodgers. At the height of protectionism, artists tried
to buck the system by banding together into groups such as Society of Contemporary Artists and
Calcutta Painters. They shared studio space and model hire, and since the early 1970s organized
an art fair at Market Square (now Chaplin Square) behind the headquarters of Kolkata Municipal
Corporation. Works by then young artists such Bikash Bhattacharjee, Ganesh Pyne and Rabin
Mandal were offered at throwaway prices. I should have bought a few sketches at least: they would
have fetched a price today. I bought slim and badly bound books of Bengali verse instead, and
at the moment I have to offer waste-collectors huge fortunes to take them off my hands. The fair
disappeared to resurface as Art Mela and Art Bazaar—synthetic tropes attempting to catch the
flavour of the city’s street life—sponsored by such brands as Park Hotel, Emami and, the current
leader in curating and campaigning for viewer-awareness, CIMA.

The new galleries that have sprung all over the city have doubtless livened up the scene, although
times are bleak for artists and sellers. Most of these are well run private galleries. A few such as
CIMA and Akar Prakar host interesting events, take shows to other cities and countries, and publish
catalogues and books of genuine quality. Even city hotels such as ITC’s The Sonar are pitching in
with art walks and galleries. On the other hand, the tradition of having fairs in the open, even for
rural artisans, is alive, although few avant garde artists display the nerve of the rowdy rebels of the
1970s. But hardly any of the smaller, mostly privately owned, galleries have permanent collections.
Those are in the hands staid old institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts (established in 1933 at
the Indian Museum, shifted about two decades later to its new location on Cathedral Road) and
Birla Academy of Art and Culture (opened 1967). Houses of art in a new Kolkata will need more than
these cultural agency houses.

The hope, if we would like to call it that, seems to lie in state sponsorship. Kolkata has a fine State
Archaeological Museum, with exquisite art objects and an illustrated full descriptive catalogue,
but the government does not seem to have found a way of publicising it. For that matter, there

14

is no comprehensive guide to art galleries

and museums in the city and the state. Yet

we have art museums such as Gurusaday Folk

and Tribal Arts and Crafts Museum, Asutosh

Museum of Indian Art at Calcutta University, the

Tagore Museum at Rabindra Bharati, and Rajya

Charukala Parshat (or State Council of Fine Arts),

which is that odd paradox of a public institution

with a permanent collection (including some

rare Jamini Rays) but no display space except Asiatic Society, Kolkata

Gaganendra Pradarshansala, a small gallery at the Information Centre fit for temporary shows.

A branch of the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in Kolkata would have served a long-standing
need of the city, and a proposal to that effect is rumoured to have been thwarted by the Left Front
government. At present Kolkata has hardly any gallery or museum that meets the safety standards
demanded by exhibitors and insurers. When Art Exhibitions China brought the “Treasures of Ancient
China” exhibition to Kolkata in September 2011, the city had to fulfil requirements met by leading
centres in America, Europe and Asia, including cities in India. There was no place available to host
such a monumental display of ninety five artifacts, a few going back to the neolithic age. The Union
Ministry of Culture (MoC) proposed Belvedere House of the National Library, under restoration by the
Archaeological Survey of India, as the venue. The exhibition ran for two busy months spanning Puja
and Diwali celebrations and a cricket test, and Kolkata Police was unwilling to guarantee security
although it eventually yielded to pressure. The hapless Director General spent sleepless nights hoping
none would care to ask how thirty nine air-conditioners were installed in the heritage premises by the
Central Public Works Department almost overnight. In such circumstances, big exhibitions are forced
into spaces not customised to host them. When such shows as ‘Art across Asia: Renewed Encounters’
opened at the Victoria Memorial Hall in August 2012, sculptures and installations had to be pushed
against the walls. There was no way visitors could view them in the round, nor could the authorities
risk the indifferent crowd, with other wonders on their list to tick off, jostling past and knocking them
off or damaging the items in inventive ways.

The anecdotal passages are not designed to amuse. It is a shame that the only city that drew
crowds that would do a mela proud when plaster casts of Rodin sculptures were exhibited at Birla
Academy in 1983, or when the same institution put on display Henry Moore and Picasso graphics
in subsequent years, still lacks respectable houses of art with professionally curated permanent
collections. I remember making a trip to the NGMA to Delhi in 1980 to see select Philadelphia Museum
of Modern Art items brought on loan. It was a magical day: I had never been to a European or
American museum before. There were Cezannes, Rodins, Brancusis, Giacomettis, Picassos, Braques,
Mondrians, Boccionnis and Duchamps in the galleries, and no visitors. We have since lost out to Delhi,
Mumbai and Bengaluru in the art trade, but not yet in popular interest. The so-called art fair in Delhi
is still more of a trade fair than a mela or bazaar, where there is generous room for the flaneur and
the laid-back type America loves to hate and women in Bengali fiction unreasonably fuss over—the
contented loser.

There is no use bemoaning opportunities lost: we need to plan for the future. What kind of art museums
and art galleries could a new Kolkata look forward to? Let us consider the usual options. Gail Dexter
Lord in Manual of Museum Planning: Sustainable Space, Facilities, and Operations (1991; 3rd edition,
Lanham: AltaMira Press, 2012) provides a useful list of the variety of museums operating in India: (1)
direct government departments such as the Union Government’s National Museum in New Delhi; (2)
Act of Parliament Museums such as Indian Museum of Kolkata or Salar Jung Museum of Hyderabad

15

The proposed Kolkata Museum of Modern Art, KMOMA
which are autonomous though state-funded; and (3) registered societies such as Jodhpur palace
and fort which can look for gap-funding from government (p. 51). Employing the same principle,
we could list art galleries, while not losing sight of the fact that many of the museums also house art.
National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai are line departments of the MoC;
Lalit Kala Akademi and its gallery in Rabindra Bhavan, Delhi, and Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata
are autonomous organisations funded by the MoC; and Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum of Mumbai is
managed jointly by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, Jamnalal Bajaj Trust and INTACH
(a non-profit society for preserving art and cultural heritage). Other trusts and commercial galleries
fall outside the government ambit, with the difference that galleries and museums run as charitable
trusts are exempt from income tax while commercial galleries are not.

Which of these models would suit a new Kolkata? Of course, one need not choose just one: Kolkata
in the future may need several or all of these. In this brief discussion, I am not thinking of museums and
galleries with a national mandate, or with niche viewership such as residents of a heritage village.
The mandate is for art-loving residents of a new Kolkata, and for tourists and visitors who would like
to have the feel of the city, its artists and artisans, the art of its rural hinterland, its cultural history, its
art collections and collectors. If funds permit, the mandate should include restoration, preservation,
archiving, learning activities such as training workshops and conferences, art camps and art related
events.

It seems a tall order, and a single gallery or museum may not serve. Yet the city needs an institution
that would be an urban landmark to fill the void separating spectral and stagnant state institutions,
commercial galleries, and civil society spaces. Such a project would require government support,
but it would also need public participation if the product is not to be destined to languish like a deed
covered by the Official Secrets Act, carefully hived off by the bureaucracy from the public which

16

The proposed Kolkata Museum of Modern Art, KMOMA

paid for it and for which it was meant. But land and seed money in metropolitan centres where real
estate prices are almost unaffordable would need hefty capital grants from the government and
the political will to get projects off the ground. At the same time, acquisition of exhibits would call
for citizens’ support if the institution is not to be without a permanent collection worth the sustained
interest of residents and visitors. We have good examples of such failed institutions sponsored by a
government—witness the Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre in Kolkata, where a museum of handicraft
had once been started but had soon become defunct.

Most of the institutions that have survived in the city (I am not counting those founded by religious
organisations and trusts)—the Asiatic Society, the Indian Museum, Presidency University (started as
Hindu College), Calcutta Public Library (later Imperial Library and now National Library), Bangiya
Sahitya Parishat, Jadavpur University (started as National Council of Education, Bengal), the
Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, the Academy of Fine Arts—owed their beginnings
to citizens’ initiatives, with the government (as in the case of the first Park Street building of the
Asiatic Society) or individual patrons (as in the case of Bangiya Sahitya Parishat) donating land
and approving capital grants. Many of these institutions, as also Tagore’s university in Santiniketan,
had to rely heavily on government funding once they started growing and incurring huge running
costs. But that takes nothing away from the case that citizen’s initiatives are a crucial ingredient
in the mix that goes to found and foster public institutions with a sizeable section of civil society as
stakeholders. Contrariwise, a flexible strategy may reconstitute government museums and galleries
to further civil society needs. Gail Lord cites the instance of the National Museum of Singapore, once
a line department of the government, being reorganised into the National Heritage Board which
ran three autonomous institutions: the Singapore Art Museum, the Asian Civilisations Museum, and
the Singapore History Museum (p. 52). The government still provides annual grants to the Board, but
earnings such as income from shops are not treated as part of consolidated government revenue.
The restructuring has attracted investment in high-quality shops and cafés, and has changed the
nature of the civil society space that the museums occupy.

Having surveyed the models Kolkata could choose from, I would like to end by touching upon a

17

project that seems to me to combine many of the advantages of the options. Kolkata Museum of
Modern Art (KMOMA) was conceived in the 1980s as a museum of modern art that would have a
permanent collection as also space for temporary exhibitions that would meet world standards. It
was a project floated by city artists, who held an auction of their works and donated paintings and
sculptures. One of the surviving dreamers, the veteran painter Jogen Chowdhury, now chairs the
trust. Land was allotted in Rajarhat by the Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation
(HIDCO), after a number of sites were either rejected or not offered. The site was somewhat distant
from the city, but since the accent was not on profit but on community participation, distance was
not an issue. As Ted Silberberg writes, ‘A high-quality museum in a poor location will attract more
visitors than a poor-quality museum in a great location’ (Lord et al [eds], p. 550).

HIDCO made the allotment, but the case was not parallel to the donated lands in the instances of the
Asiatic Society or Bangiya Sahitya Parishat. The land was paid for at the prevalent market price when
the land leased out to one of the trustees was auctioned by Kolkata Municipal Corporation during
the Left Front rule in the state. KMC retained 50% of the proceeds, and the rest went to KMOMA,
although the money would be released in tranches as is the practice with government funds. The
Union Minister of Culture (MoC) was also signatory to the trust deed, although it has hardly committed
funds till date. The rest was to be raised from private and corporate benefactors. The museum would
be built and run by a trust which would have representatives of artists, art administrators, gallery
owners, persons of eminence including a few from the world of business, and representatives of the
KMC, the MoC, the state Ministry of Information and Culture, and HIDCO.

The mandate was ambitious. The museum would be for citizens, artists, scholars, students, tourists and
cultivated seekers of leisure-activity. The vision statement speaks of an Art Centre with 44 galleries, an
academic wing housing libraries and research space, and a curatorial wing spread over of 4,68,336
sq ft, and of a Culture City with studios, residences, auditorums and shops spread over 83,962 sq
ft. This would involve 10 acres of land and a nine-storeyed tower not counting the ground level
and basement. The trustees hired Herzog and De Meuron to plan its building. The firm studied the
city’s architecture, light and traffic flow, and looked at the contours of its public life. They came
up with a design that would echo the syncretic energy of the city, rising to the sikhara through
layered blocks as in terra-cotta temples while the façade recalled the stone filigree that would allow
light in and open up to the viewers—to a non-performance public space, including learning space.
The architecture was not planned along sectarian lines. The museum proposed to bring together
the diversity of India’s cultural riches and artefacts from abroad from the late eighteenth century
onward in a state-of-the-art facility, a cultural hub free from any parochial tilt.

The foundation stone of KMOMA was laid by the Chief Minister of the state in November 2013.
Since then work has foundered, for reasons that are not relevant to this essay. KMOMA is more
than a project: it is a way of rethinking houses of art in a new Kolkata. Even if it takes long to get
off the ground, its inspiration promises to hasten upgrades of existing museums and galleries. More
important, it will force lodgings of art in the city to create synergy spaces to involve the community
and induce the loyalty that was missing from line-department museums and private galleries that
often functioned as clearing houses for artifacts. *

*Reprinted, with kind permission, from Connecting Histories: International Symposium 5-8 February
2017, ed. Adreja Mukherjee (Kolkata Art and Heritage Foundation, 2017).

18

Rajesh Purohit

Sri. Rajesh Purohit, a renowned

museologist, started his career

as an archaeologist in various

archaeological sites of India

under Archaeological Survey

of India. He was the Curator of

Srikrishna Museum at Kurukshetra,

Haryana. He served as Director of

Allahabad Museum and Director

NCZCC Allahabad under the

Ministry of Culture. Sri. Purohit

played a key role in setting up of

five museums in Haryana, Leela

Dhar Dhukhi Saraswati Museum,

Jayanti Archaeological Museum

at Jind, a martyr museum of Kargil

encounter named Major Nitin Bali

Martyrs’ Memorial at Kurukshetra,

Personalia Museum on Late

Gulzarilal Nanda at Kurukshetra,

and Mahabharata Digital Audio-

visual Story-telling Visitor Experience Interactive Gallery at Kurukshetra.

He has curated major exhibitions like Mahabharata Festival organised by

Mahabharata Samshodan Pratisthanam, Bangalore, Heritage of India with

the assistance of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Vishwarupa Darshan,

Heritage Trail with British Museum at Allahabad and so on. He won an award

for preservation of Ancient Heritage by Haryana Institute of Fine Arts (HIFA)

and Karma Bhumi Samman by the Chief Minister of Haryana. He is now the

Director of Indian Museum, Kolkata.

19

Organisation and
Management of Museums

Rajesh Purohit

Museum organisation cannot be compared with other corporate organisations,
because it involves so many different things. It is so different from all other
experiences. You need to have an organisation where people of similar thinking,
similar ideology coexist, interact and work cohesively in the interest of the
organisation, in a self-reliant and sustainable manner. Unless they agree with the
mandate of the institution and they know about overall values and essence of
the museum, unless they know what needs to be done in the course of running
the organisation, one cannot have a museum especially when you are thinking
about organising such a huge accomplishment which involves the government,
people’s participation, global as well as private partners. A museum looks after
the world’s cultural property and interprets the collection to the public. Cultural
property also provides the preliminary evidence in a number of disciplines such
as archaeology and the natural sciences. KMOMA is slightly different; you are
talking about contemporary art collection only. So, you need to have a different
kind of set-up and design.

Most museums exist for public benefit and their operation reflects accountability
and commitment towards people. Hence these two words (accountability and
commitment) are important. Museums as the custodians of cultural, natural
and scientific heritage of our nation have a special responsibility. This would
condition their actions, particularly when the responsibility is not contained within
administrative or political boundaries or those of academic discipline. Besides,
museum management is not like corporate management. Yet a corporate style of
management is essential in running a museum, but it must have other dimensions
which are generally not found in corporate sector.

An effective museum service requires confidence of the public it serves. You might
have seen that people who are coming to the museum are not aware of what
they should see. They come as lay audience and nobody cares about them. If you
are concerned about them, think about the viewers and listen to them properly,
then only footfall will increase. Responsibility for the care and interpretation of any
aspect of tangible or intangible cultural heritage at the local and national levels

20

the need to cultivate this confidence. Efforts should be directed at creating public awareness,
role and the purpose of the museum and the way in which it is being managed. Therefore the
institutional standing for the protection and promotion of the heritage requires properly constituted
and organised institution, so that the organisation will run smoothly and sustain for years together
in fulfilling the aspiration of the people. There should be a written and public constitution and it
should be acceptable to the people. The institution has an accountability to the constitution and its
mandate. It should be there on the website, so that you people have clear access to all your system.

As far as Indian Museum is concerned we have the structure as detailed below: -

Ministry of Culture
|

Culture Minister
|

Secretary (Culture)
|

Joint Secretary
|

Director (Museum)

Board of Trustees
|

Chairman, Governor (Ex-Officio)
|

Vice-Chairman (Ex-Officio)
|

Secretary is the Director, Indian Museum
|

Deputy Director
|

Curators

The Director is the Chief Executive Officer or the Principal Executive and is the most important person
who runs the entire functioning of the museum. While making such an appointment government
bodies need to take into account the knowledge and skill required to fill the post. Most of the time
this quality should include additional intellectual ability and professional knowledge complemented
by a high standard of ethical conduct.

It may come as a surprise to most that in many of our museums the most important issue is that the
director has adequate knowledge of laws related to antiques and piracy. Now, it can be seen in many
European museums that they have an exclusive cell for legal matters. These mostly relate to laws
and policies on antiques and their international transit. As far as the crucial factor of management
is concerned there are three different kinds of structure. In government or government undertaken
museum there is a hierarchical pattern. There is an authoritative or up to down approach to
institutional management. Honestly speaking, being a Director, I would never adopt this hierarchical
structure because in a place like a museum hierarchical structure will never be healthy since museum
management is more team work than authoritative instructed order based work. Besides, strong
motivation, and a healthy and cohesive environment is more useful than authoritative orders in
accomplishing the job related to education and creativity. You cannot compel or force or direct a
person to complete the work because it is more of a creative nature and administrative hierarchies
can run museums. This is my personal experience for the last 27 years. You have a horizontal structure
with a straight line, which is the line of contact with the Director. He is the manager to give all staff
equal access to the system, so that they can immediately come to the Director and raise their

21

issues, then their problems can be taken to the top level of the governing body. If the problems
are not communicated to the top level by the Director, the friction is bound to arise between the
staff and the Director. You might have seen a junior officer but who is academically sound, who is
skillwise very efficient, but if you ignore the person in the office, you neither do any justice to that
man nor do you do justice to your institution and the work you do. In our country this problem to be
addressed. I have worked with such members of the staff who have disagreed with me, and they
have been very useful in running the museum. In addition, they have the responsibility in managing
a special team which cuts across all or most of the museum and its staff structure. This could be an
interdisciplinary internal working group or committee. That is why whenever we go for an exhibition
or an event we constitute a committee for planning and execution. For example, the Senior Curator
of archaeology is responsible for managing all archaeological staff, collection and services. But the
Curator might also lead a standing working group with responsibility for developing, maintaining
strength, strategic development plan for the whole service while Senior Curator of natural history
might have a wide responsibility under the Director for information and communication technology
policy and its implementation.

There are a few more important issues pertaining to management. There are three types of
management that the museum should formulate. The philosophical policies should address the
ethical issues, and the resource development policies would guide all the major resources, working
procedures would govern the operational matters. Museums have changed and there has been a
huge shift in attitude and activities. You must have seen that children are not interested in museums,
well educated people would not go to the museum because of the monotony of age old museums.
You have to reach out for more creative ideas so that all kinds of viewers may come. If you can
understand why people are visiting shopping malls more than museums, you would know that they
do not have the sense of identity required of them. In a shopping mall they are having the space to
meet and talk and there is an economic activity too. The involvement of the people and community
is equally important for organisation like the museum.

There is a need for new thoughts that can inspire people. There has been a change in the concept
of the museum. But in age old museums whatever was displayed are there as it is and we do not
have the logistic facilities to lift things from one place to another, they are arranged at random. You
do not have a strong story line to engage the viewers with the artifacts. If you go to the geological
section it is like a bazaar. We need to change all this. The problem is that you have a school of
thought or a group of employees who have been working for the last 30 years and you have an
employee who is just recruited and there is a generation gap between the two. You have two
different kinds of people: one not ready to accept the digital intervention for interpretation or
documentation and the other groomed under a system where the museum is a place where they
can do research and display things. To form a team in such circumstances you have to make a
personal transition as well as organisational changes. Initially you will have to face some problems
and people will not agree. However, gradually as the traditional old Curators understand the utility
and significance of the change, they will appreciate the organisational change and work along
with modern system. Eventually, when you succeed in achieving your goal, both old and new staff
should celebrate the success and that should give them plenty of motivation. Your management
should have the opportunity to build your team and tell the success story to your stakeholders. Share
your success story with all your team members and celebrate your success and you will find that
your organisation is working smoothly. Before I conclude, I would suggest that KMOMA think about
fundraising and ask the young entrepreneurs to come forward to participate in supporting such an
institution.

22

Mungo Campbell

Mr. Mungo Campbell is Deputy
Director of The Hunterian at the
University of Glasgow. Before
moving to Glasgow in 1997 he
worked at the Scottish National
Portrait Gallery and in the Print
Room at the National Gallery of
Scotland.

From 1998 to 2003, he served
on the Visual Art Committee of
the Scottish Arts Council and
chaired SAC visual arts panels for
Exhibitions and for Educational
Awards. He was also Chair of
VAGA Scotland from 2003 to
2007. He was a Board member
of the Scottish Museums Council
(now Museums Galleries
Scotland) from 2001 to 2007 and
also served on the Board of SCRAN from 2004 to 2006.

He curated Allan Ramsay: Portraits of the Enlightenment exhibition at
The Hunterian in 2013 and is leading a major research programme in
collaboration with the Yale Center for British Art, for the tercentenary of
William Hunter’s birth in 2018.

23

Through the Eye of the Nilgai

Mungo Campbell

A new ecology for the museums of a ‘Second City’.

On February 28th 1771, William Hunter, the founder of The Hunterian at the University
of Glasgow, read a paper at the Royal Society in London. Subsequently published
in the Society’s Transactions, ‘An Account of the Nyl-ghau, an Indian Animal, not
hitherto described’ opens as follows:

Among the riches which, of late years, have been imported from India,
may be reckoned a fine animal, the Nyl-ghau; which, it is to be hoped,
will now be propagated in this country, so as to become one of the most
useful, or at least one of the most ornamental beasts of the field...’

Hunter had recently performed a post-mortem dissection on a Nilgai from the
menagerie belonging to Queen Charlotte. The paper and its publication offered
one means of preserving and communicating the knowledge derived from
Hunter’s scientific enquiry. Apart from the paper itself, two other items have survived
in Hunter’s collection which now offer contemporary visitors to The Hunterian
multiple points of departure for 21st-century questions covering fields of enquiry as
diverse as genetics, optics, social and cultural history and last, but not least in this
context, the multiple roles performed by artists as recorders and communicators
of ideas, both scientific and cultural. The first object is a painting of the Queen’s
Nilgai commissioned by Hunter in 1769 from George Stubbs. The second object: a
glass specimen-jar containing the anatomised eye-ball of the Nilgai.

Despite their different origins, the very different processes involved in their making
and the differences in their respective forms, both painting and eyeball were first
and foremost tools for the preservation and communication of ideas. The collection
which Hunter formed in 18th century London as a means of making, preserving
and communicating knowledge was one in which the practice of art and the
practice of science were almost entirely mutually interdependent in both process
and production. In the 19th century university of which the museum became a
part, the ‘two cultures’ of art and science had gone their separate, apparently
irreconcilable ways. Differences in the processes through which objects were
formed and acquired for the museum, their subsequent ordering and display, the
nature and the forms of the data associated with them, the purposes and means

24

of their interrogation were all matters through which the collections and their audiences, both public
and academic, became defined. Over two centuries, the intellectual and social capital at the core
of Hunter’s bequest had become increasingly fragmented and obscured.

Some 200 years after Hunter’s museum first arrived in Glasgow, the communities served by The
Hunterian are asking new questions of the objects in the collections. The digital availability of objects
and their associated data has opened up almost infinite opportunities for creative approaches to the
shaping of knowledge derived from the collections in both the sciences and the humanities. At the
Hunterian’s new collections study centre at Kelvin Hall, historical taxonomies which have dominated
both public and academic engagement with objects for over 200 years can be readily overcome
and new forms of creative thinking applied to the material of scientific and cultural enquiry. While
the collection’s study centre is itself starting to re-define the way that our audiences engage with
museum objects, the building too, a highly innovative partnership between the city of Glasgow and
its cultural and leisure service organisation ‘Glasgow Life’, the University of Glasgow and the National
Library of Scotland is similarly helping to redefine the way that public organisations can operate in
collaborative ventures which deliver together far greater collective benefit than would be achieved
individually.

At first glance, the partnership which has transformed Kelvin Hall seems an unlikely one; part sports
hall and dance-studio; part film-archive and cinema; part museum storage and teaching facility.
The huge industrial-scale spaces of Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall were designed in the 1920’s as a place to
showcase the commercial manufacturing and trading relationships between the west of Scotland
and the British Empire. Subsequently, an indoor sports arena, a venue for circuses and concerts,
and a home for Glasgow’s museum of transport a decade ago, a major building in a lively district
close to the University and to Kelvingrove, the city’s much-loved municipal museum, Kelvin Hall was
deeply etched in the collective memory of the populace but struggling to adapt to 21st century
requirements. In 2017, you can walk into the building on any day of the week, from 8 in the morning to
8 at night and you will find groups of local mothers meeting over coffee while their children are at gym
classes, pensioners waiting for a tea-dance, professional basket-ball players emerging from training,
all of them mingling with groups of students on their way to a seminar or an object-based teaching
session. To reach the gym, mothers, pensioners and athletes all walk through spaces dedicated
to the cultural heritage associated with the building. Digital fragments representing a century of
Scotland’s social history captured on celluloid by amateurs and professionals alike draw almost every
visitor through the building towards images of shared histories, past displays of objects selected from
the partners’ respective collections. Medical students heading to a laboratory class using historic
anatomy preparations pass Masters students studying Curatorial Practice in Contemporary Art or
Museum Education, for all of whom the diverse cultures surrounding sport or cinema are equally as
capable of shaping challenging strands of creative enquiry and engagement as are any associated
with more longstanding object-focused programmes of the museum.

This is only a first phase of the refurbishment of Kelvin Hall. Two thirds of the building remain to be
redeveloped. These spaces will offer new galleries for The Hunterian, a location for shared permanent
collections (for example the Charles Rennie Mackintosh held by both city and university), and in an
additional partnership with the National Galleries of Scotland, international-quality exhibition space
for contemporary art. Learning in all its guises, has been embedded in the first phase of development
at Kelvin Hall. In phase two, displays and programmes will reinforce this still further.

While a timetable for construction work for the next phase has yet to be finalised, existing Kelvin
Hall programming and its associated messaging to the various communities it already serves and

25

to those who will help realise the vision, the public, politicians and potential supporters all serve as
regular reminders that a complex and ground-breaking project is already delivering on its promises.
Several diverse communities and institutions have energetically re-engaged with the building and
are partners in a vision for its future which offers all a share in something which has already reached
beyond the bounds of immediate locality and historical institutional purpose.
Planning a new museum and then building it is a long, complex and expensive process. William
Hunter’s collections will shortly be on display in their fourth (or in some cases, fifth) home in 250 years.
In each new home, as an institution The Hunterian has adapted to its circumstances, and the objects,
themselves unchanging, have been repeatedly reconsidered, re-examined and recontextualised
by new audiences. The capital investment required for new museum buildings is always substantial.
It is vanishingly modest however when set alongside the social and intellectual capital amassed
when great collections continue to interact over generations with the communities they serve. If the
ideas which have shaped the vision of Kelvin Hall initially appeared complex, and the completion
of the project is still some way off, the practical realities of making something work, of building visibly
on that social and intellectual capital, and of giving our various communities the daily experience
of participating in the life of the building are all making their own contribution to the realisation of
the vision. The objects in William Hunter’s museum and the people working with them are already
adapting to the prospect of a 21st century home. Rediscovering and revitalising the rich intellectual
and social capital in our collections, people, activities and programmes at Kelvin Hall are already
ensuring that the bricks and the mortar will follow.

26

Sujata Sen

Smt. Sujata Sen has had a
career in publishing, journalism,
education and books. She is
the CEO of Future Hope which
provides pastoral care and
education to street and slum
children in Kolkata. She is former
Director of the British Council in
East India and in that capacity
led a comprehensive research
project on museums in India
and the UK, and worked with
several of these museums. She
has been a publishing editor and
a journalist and columnist, and
is an Honorary Member of the
Publishers and Booksellers Guild,
and Director of the Kolkata
Literature Festival within the Book
Fair. She is a Trustee of KMOMA.
Smt. Sen has chaired several sessions of the Symposium.

27

Pankaj Panwar

An eminent artist and art academic,
Professor Pankaj Panwar is the Head
of the Department of Sculpture
and Ex-Principal of Kala Bhavana,
Santiniketan, Viswa Bharati University.
He graduated from Kala Bhavana,
Santiniketan, Viswa Bharati University
and subsequently went to M.S.
University of Baroda and Royal
College of Art, London, UK. He is
the recipient of National Award for
“Magnificent Five” 47th National
Exhibition, Lalit Kala Akadami
(National Acedemy of Arts) New
Delhi, and; All India Exhibition Award
for Sculptur “ Chess Players”, UP L.K.A.
Lucknow; Nomura Sculpture Award
for “ Lady and Lying Cat”, Nomura
International, London. UK; French
Government Scholarship, French
Embassy, New Delhi; Henry Moore
Fellowship, Henry Moore Foundation,
UK; Charles Wallace Grant, Charles Wallace Foundation, UK; Jr. Research
Fellowship, Union Ministry of Human Resource Development; National
Cultural Scholarship. He was the artist-in-residence at Ecole Superieure des
Beaux Arts, Le Mans, France; Queens Park High School, Chester, UK; Leeds
City Art Gallery, Leeds, UK; Gridzedale Forest, Lake District, UK; Harmony
Art Foundation, Mumbai; Faculty of Fine Arts and Music (Visiting Faculty),
Tripura University; RLV College of Fine Arts & Music, Kerala. Prof. Panwar
has showcased his art works globally of which important solo exhibitions
are at Aicon Gallery, Palo Alto, US; Grosvenor Museum, Chester, UK; R.C.A.
London, UK; Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds, UK; Art-Heritage Gallery, New
Delhi.

Professor Panwar has chaired the session “Creating New Museums and
Meeting Challenges”.

28

Tasneem Zakaria Mehta

Smt. Tasneem Zakaria Mehta is
an art historian, writer, curator,
designer and museum expert who
has studied Fine Arts and Design at
the Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai.
She holds an undergraduate
degree in Political Philosophy
from Columbia University, New
York, a master’s degree in English
from the University of Delhi and
a postgraduate diploma in Art
History from London. She has been
a Non-Executive Independent
Director at Wockhardt Ltd. since
2014. Smt. Tasneem Zakaria Mehta
has successfully pioneered the
revival and restoration of several
of Mumbai’s important cultural
sites. In 2010, she was elected
Vice Chairperson of INTACH, the
Indian National Trust for Art and
Cultural Heritage, and has been the Convenor of the Mumbai Chapter
and member of the Governing Council since 1996. Since 2003, she is the
Managing Trustee and Honorary Director of the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum,
Mumbai City Museum, (the erstwhile Victoria and Albert Museum). She
is also a Trustee of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale Foundation, a member of
the advisory board of the National Gallery for Modern Art (NGMA), and
member of the International Council of the Museum for Modern Art, New
York. Smt. Mehta has received several awards. Mumbai Mirror, a Times of
India publication recognised her as a Mumbai Hero for her work at the
Museum. She was selected by Harvard University as a woman achiever for
their Star Women Project, 2009.

29

On Curating

Tasneem Zakaria Mehta

Curating has become a much used term in the last few years. Curator comes
from the Latin word curare which means “to take care”. Traditional responsibilities
included research, documentation and collection management. In the 1970s as
contemporary art became more popular, Harald Szeemann the Swiss Curator,
revolutionised the idea of curating by inviting artists to produce work around a
specific idea especially for documenta 5. Today this is the norm in Contemporary
Art Museums and there are many freelance curators too. Curators not only select
works of art but they research ideas, write catalogue essays and labels. It is both

an intellectual as well as an artistic
job. Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City
Museum (erstwhile The Victoria
and Albert Museum, Bombay),
Mumbai’s oldest museum, opened
to the public in 1857. The museum,
which is owned by the MCGM,
was in a derelict condition. It was
restored by Indian National Trust for
Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH)
with support from the Jamnalal
Bajaj Foundation and the MCGM
between 2003 and 2008. INTACH
received the UNESCO Award of
Excellence for Cultural Conservation
in the Asia-Pacific region for the
restoration of the museum. For the
restoration, the paint was scraped
and samples were sent to INTACH
Conservation Lab to determine
the colour accuracy of the original
paint. The museum was repainted
in a colour scheme suited to the
Victorian palette. Archival research
indicated that Celadon green was
the colour cited by Henry Cole, Founder of V&A London and Chief Commissioner
of the Great Exhibition of 1851, to be the best colour for contemplation of art
objects. This was confirmed by the conservators at the V&A, London. The Dr. Bhau
Daji Lad Museum showcases the city’s art, culture and history. It has a small but rare
collection of fine and decorative arts of the 19th century, which highlights early
modern art practice as well as the finest craftsmanship of various communities of

30

ivory sculpture of Bidri Jug : Bidar Clay models of Ivory craftsmen
Radha and Krishna,
Trivandrum

the then Bombay Presidency. The collection includes extraordinary examples of silverware, bidri,

pottery, lacquerware, brass, bronze, ivory, sandalwood, armoury, agate, coins, koftagiri, horn and

the then Bombay Presidency. The collection includes extraordinary examples of silverware, bidri,

pottery, lacquerware, brass, bronze, ivory, sandalwood, armoury, agate, coins, textiles. Prominent

amongst museum’s collection are 19th – early 20th century paintings executed by renowned artists

from the Sir J. J. School of Art. The Museum had a symbiotic relation with the Sir. J.J. School of Art,

during the 19th and early 20th century. The position of curator of the museum and the principal

of the School of Art were held by the same person and many of the objects in the Museum were

produced by students of the School. The collection also includes miniature models, dioramas, maps

JJ School of Art Pottery Water colour painting by P. A. Dhond

depicting the dress, headwear, occupations and View of the pottery showcase with
lifestyle of the various communities that migrated to vases from JJ School of Art
Mumbai in the 19th century. These dioramas were
specially made in the late 19th and early 20th century
by the then Curator of the museum. The museum has
a unique rare book collection about the history of the
city, art and aesthetics and crafts. It boasts of more
than 400 rare books in its collection including recent
acquisitions such as The People of India by Mortimer
Menpes (1910) and Arms and Armour in Antiquity and
Middle Ages by Charles Boutell. The museum also has

31

Persi couple Khoja couple ideal Indian vilage diorama

a collection of rare miniature paintings, company school paintings and modern art that document

the life of the people of the city in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. The museum has also

recently acquired contemporary artworks through its contemporary art exhibition programme. We

acquired works by renowned contemporary Indian artists such as Ranjani Shettar, Nalini Malani,

Archana Hande, L.N. Tallur, CAMP and Sheba Chhachhi.

Curatorial Strategy

Ranajani Shettar, Varsha L.N. Tallur, Quintessential

Industrial Arts Gallery
Both in design and presentation, though there are many
changes as nothing was in its original form, we have tried
to evoke the spirit and intention of the original. Mumbai
was the centre of Asian trade in the 19th century and early
20th century. The showcases were carefully calibrated to
reflect different themes. The Industrial Arts Gallery showcases
decorative arts and outstanding craftsmanship of the 19th
century. Inspired by the 2nd century BC paintings of the
View of the showcases in the Kamalnayan Bajaj Ajanta caves, this experimental pottery from the Sir J. J.
Mumbai Gallery with clay models of communities School of Art greets visitors at the entrance to the Industrial
Arts Gallery. Kamalnayan Bajaj Mumbai Gallery tells the story of Mumbai’s origins and development
in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries through dioramas and models. The primary curatorial
objective was to tell the story of Mumbai city from a multitude of perspectives.

Curating Historic Collections In The Context Of Today
The exhibition, “The Doubled Frame: Interrogating Identity”, attempted to trace the genealogy

32

of the museum’s model
and diorama collection
by exploring the various
lenses through which
Indians were viewed and
were insidiously being
taught to view themselves
in the 18th, 19th and early

20th centuries.

Engaging With The
Contemporary

The museum has

conceived an extensive

exhibition programme

which includes a series of

Sketch of a wood carver Model of a wood carver from museum curated exhibitions called
drawn by John Lockwood collection “Engaging Traditions” that
Kipling. The lournal of Indian Art invite artists to respond to
And Industry, Vol. 1,Issue No. 20, the museum’s collection,
history and archives;
in 1887

addressing issues that speak directly to the traditions and precepts that underlie the founding of the

museum, yet evoke the present by challenging orthodoxies and questioning assumptions. Several

distinguished contemporary artists including Sudarshan Shetty, Jitish Kallat, Sheba Chhachhi, L. N.

Tallur, Atul Dodiya, CAMP, Thukral & Tagra, Rohini Devasher, Dayanita Singh and Praneet Soi have

participated in this programme. “It (new forms of art) creates a sense of the new as an insurgent

act of cultural translation. Such art does not merely recall the past as social cause or aesthetic

precedent; it renews the past, refiguring it as a contingent ‘in between’ space, that innovates and

interrupts the performance of the present. The ‘past-present’ becomes part of the necessity, not the

nostalgia, of living.” - Homi K. Bhabha, “The Location of Culture”.

Special Project Space

In December 2012, the museum opened the museum plaza, a unique new cultural hub which offers

people a much needed green and programme-rich public recreation space. The museum has

restored and adapted old spaces to accommodate new exhibition galleries called the Special

Project Space, a large open area for the performing arts as well as public sculpture, a Museum Café,

a Museum Shop and an Education Centre.

A few such projects are listed below:

• Labyrinths.... Anita Dube 5th January – 15th February 2013

• Listening to the Shades......... Nalini Malani 6th December 2013 – 12th January 2014

• Epiphanies....... Manisha Parekh 24th January – 14th March 2014

• Poi/ by Archana Hande 11th December, 2014 – February 10, 2015

• Indian Popular Visual Culture: The Conquest of the World as Picture Curated by Jyotindra Jain

9th April to 30th April 2017

• Leaving the Terrestrial: Its Own Kind of Archive by Sumakshi Singh in collaboration with Exhibit

320 Mumbai Return: Journey beyond the city in collaboration with URBZ, an experimental

urban collective based in Mumbai ,1st July 2017 to 13th August 2017

• Crystal Cities by Jagannath Panda SEP 25, 2017 - OCT 29, 2017

33

Students at Indian artist Reena Kallat’s studio

Collaborative Exhibitions At The Museum
In addition to the museum’s curated exhibitions, there have been several collaborative exhibitions
that engage the museum-going audience through important international and Indian exhibitions on
a variety of different themes. The museum has partnered with international institutions including the
Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Council, the British Library, the Dresden State Art Collections,
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Institute of International Visual
Arts and the Ermenegildo Zegna Group in an effort to facilitate international cultural exchange.

The following list should offer an idea of the range of such events:
• Something That I’ll Never Really See: Contemporary Photography from the V&A 17th November

2010 to 8th January 2011 at the Kamalnayan Bajaj Special Exhibitions Gallery.

• A Century of Olympic Posters An Exhibition Exploring the Interface between Art & Design 4th
February 2011 to 13th March 2011 at the Kamalnayan Bajaj Special Exhibitions Gallery.

• Sightseeing Trip. Eberhard Havekost in India 19th February 2012 to 1st April 2012 at the Kamalnayan
Bajaj Special Exhibitions Gallery in collaboration with the Dresden State Art Collections, Germany.

• Social Fabric 23rd September 2012 to 11th November 2012 at the Kamalnayan Bajaj Special
Exhibitions Gallery in collaboration with Institute of International Visual Arts (INIVA), London.

• BMW Guggenheim Lab 9th of December 2012 to 20th January 2013 at the Museum Plaza.

• ZegnArt Public / India 3rd March 2013 – 14th April 2013.

• Homelands 28th April 2013 – 9th June 2013 at the Kamalnayan Bajaj Special Exhibitions Gallery.

• Folk Archive Alan Kane and Jeremy Deller from the British Council Collection October 31 –
November 30, 2014 at the Kamalnayan Bajaj Special Exhibitions Gallery.

• The Sassoon Album’ Produced in association with The British Library October 25th- November24th
2013 at the Special Project Space.

• Winter.’ By Julian Opie In collaboration with British Council August 6, 2015 - to September 13,
2015 at the Special Project Space.

• Sound Sculpture by ZIMOUN In collaboration with Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council and as a part
of Sound Reasons Festival V November 6, 2016 to November 30, 2016 at the Special Project Space.

• Possible Futures by Marie Velardi In collaboration with Swiss Arts Council ProHelvetia December
3, 2016 - February 28, 2017 at the Special Project Space.

Google Cultural Institute
The Google Cultural Institute reaches more than 51 million people. After an extensive two-year
effort by the museum in collaboration with Google, more than 200 highlights from our collection

34

as well as contemporary art exhibitions can all be accessed
virtually. The Museum View Feature allows a 360 degree virtual
tour of the Museum. Specially curated virtual exhibitions tell the
story of the restoration and revitalisation of the Museum, as well
as important contemporary art exhibitions. The museum has also
created new virtual exhibitions on the Google platform. The
largest international online exhibition titled “We Wear Culture”
was launched worldwide in June 2017, on textiles and sartorial
history. Over 180 international museums came together to share
their collections to tell the story of attires and textiles from different
cultures including the V&A Museum, British Museum, the Met,
African Heritage House in Kenya, Les Arts Decoratifs in France,
Rijks museum in Netherlands. The BDL Museum curated 3 virtual
exhibitions for this project.

Education
Engaged, participatory experiences are the focus of the
Museum’s vibrant education programme. As one of Mumbai’s
busiest, public cultural spaces, the Museum offers a diverse
range of audience groups targeted opportunities to engage
with, learn from, and be inspired by, the city’s historic legacies,
contemporary art practices, and craft traditions. From an
intensive post-graduate diploma programme on modern and
contemporary art, weekend family festivals, workshops for adult
learners, to tours that link school curriculum with the museum
collections and exhibitions, the Museum strives to offer something
for everyone.

PG Diploma In Modern And Contemporary: Indian Art
History and Curatorial Studies

The PG Diploma course is now in its 6th successful year. The
course was introduced in 2012 in response to the need for an
academic course in Art History and Curatorial Studies in Mumbai.
Renowned faculty from universities across India, independent
curators, scholars and international practitioners are invited to
teach the course. Gallery visits with artists and curators are also
organised as part of the course.
Other programmes and events include:

• Film, music, dance and theatre
• Workshops for MCGM, private schools and NGOs: inspired by museum collections

35

• Interpretive museum worksheets and tours
• Kahani karnival
• Movies at the museum
• Theatre at the museum
• Museum katta
• Expert workshops
• Teacher’s Training Workshop by Amir Parsa, MoMA, NY on The Meaning & Relevance of

Cultural Education
• A Panorama of Latin American Cinema, Film Lecture Series by Richard Peña
• Seminars
• In a special event held in collaboration with the India Design Forum, internationally

acclaimed designer, Thomas Heatherwick presented his work to guests at the Museum.

• Public lectures

• Free, open to public-lectures every Saturday evening conducted by eminent scholars

Awards
The Museum has been recognised by several national and international organisations for its cultural
programmes. Recently, it was awarded the International Quality Award in the Gold Category at
the International BID Quality Convention and nominated for the Prudential Eye Awards for Asian
Contemporary Art.

Architectural Design Competition

The Museum held an international architectural competition for
the design of a new wing for the Museum in December 2013. Of
over a hundred entries, eight shortlisted teams were selected to
present their final designs to a panel of eminent jury members. The
jury comprised of the then Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Mr.
Sitaram Kunte, Director of the Museum Tasneem Zakaria Mehta,
Museum Trustees Mrs. Minal Bajaj, Mr. Shyam Benegal and Mr.
Rajiv Jalota as well as leading international figures: Dr. Homi K.
Bhabha, Director of the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard,
Dr. Vishakha Desai, the Special Advisor to the President of
Columbia University, Mr. Sen Kapadia of Sen Kapadia Associates,
Mr. Anand Mahindra of the Mahindra Group, Dr. Martin Roth,
Director of the V&A Museum in London, Dr. Aroon Tikekar, former
President of Asiatic Society in Mumbai. The winning design was
proposed by Steven Holl Architects, led by New York-based
architect Steven Holl.

36

Sushma K. Bahl

Smt. Sushma K. Bahl, former
Head, Arts and Culture, British
Council India, is the author of
5000 Years of Indian Art published
in English and Chinese. Smt. Bahl
is an independent arts adviser,
writer and curator based in
Delhi. She was the Project
Consultant for SNA’s Rang
Swarn theatre festival in 2003,
Lalit Kala Akademi’s Golden
Jubilee Programme 2004-05,
Guest Director for XI Triennale-
India 2005, Co-festival Director
for Katha Asia International
Utsav 2006, National School of
Drama’s international theatre
festival BRM XII in 2010 and
Jury Member for the 14th Asian
Art Biennale Dhaka in 2010.
She was awarded the ASEAN-
Indian Artists Residency in 2012, “Yoga Chakra” project in 2015 and was
the Commissioner for SCZCC 29th National Contemporary Art exhibition in
2016. Most recently she has curated “Forms of Devotion” a large ongoing
international art exhibition for the Museum of Sacred Art in Belgium, launched
in Delhi and Bangkok in 2015, shown at the China Art Museum in Shanghai
and in Spain until January 2017. She was awarded the MBE, Member of
the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, for her contribution to India-
UK cultural collaborative work, and the IHC Art India Award for curation
of “Ways of Seeing” art exhibition. Sm Bahl is member of the Paris based
International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and Trustee of Studio Abhyas
in Delhi and Harjai Global Gurukul in Mumbai, among others.

37

Art Curation: Principles and

Practices Sushma K. Bahl

The principles and hence the definition of art curation tends to be open-ended
and broad-ranging. From being perceived as the director, catalyst or conduit
for ideas, to someone who is a selector and interpreter of art projects, the
curator is expected to be a master of it all. S/he must be a subject specialist with
sound theoretical expertise and historical knowledge as well as equipped with
contemporary skills, techniques and training required to plan, lead, commission,
write, educate, shape, produce and manage the project all in one!

The word ‘curator’ which first came into use in the mid14th century in Latin, means
‘to take care of’. Rooted in the more familiar concept of ‘Keepers’ appointed by

38

Installation view of the exhibtion at Lalit Kala Akademi in Delhi March 2015

museums around the world to take care of their antiquities and collections, the role of art curators in
the 21st century is continually evolving and expanding. Essentially aimed at building bridges between
the art and the audience, the contemporary curatorial practices extend to include the selection of
works, artists and projects, writing text and giving briefings, taking care and suitably presenting the
works, interacting with the academic world as well as the public, sponsors and media. A subject
specialist, museum staff or an independent expert, the curator must be knowledgeable about visual
culture – the mode, matter and manifestation of the work/project at hand. As a planner as well as
executor of the project s/he must be a multi-tasker and multi-talented in sync with contemporary
context, latest technology and social media. A fund-raiser, author, interpreter, editor, critic and
lecturer; s/he must also be resourceful and able to lead the team.

Curatorial practice is determined in accordance with the nature of artworks, the target audience, the
resources and facilities available or appropriate for each given project. At the very outset, the curator
needs to internalise, conceptualise and analyse how to plan, fund and make the project work. S/he
must be passionate about the work/subject/theme/assignment that s/he has undertaken to curate.
A carefully examined proposal helps make suitable plans to present, communicate and mastermind
it. Ranging from knowledge and understanding of the content/collection to its display, articulation,
cataloguing, documentation, provenance, promotion, audience profiling and development as well

39

Installation view of the exhibtion at Lalit Kala Akademi in Delhi March 2015 as outreach/ associated events, a
curator, just like a director, needs
experience of an exhibition.” to look into multiple aspects of the
task in hand. Questions around
the handling, transportation,
insurance, security, loans
and care of works and their
interpretation/presentation for
the wider audience are integral
to curatorial principles. Also
fundamental to the discourse
are considerations such as
the time-frame, funding and
facilities including technical
support, required for different
types of artistic projects. Issues
around thematic approach,
authenticity, fair practice,
feedback, crowd control, and
conflict of interest also require
attention. A curator needs to
take into account numerous
factors ranging from visitors’
experience to online access
and through to publications.
To quote Teresa Gleadowe,
Founding Director, MA course in
Curating Contemporary Art at
the Royal College of Art, London,
“The curator of contemporary
art is now concerned with the
whole physical and intellectual

In fact, the principle of curation engages with the project from its ideation to reality. Its practice
though varies to befit the nature and purpose of the project, taking into account the art form, group
or solo event, site-specific or survey or multimedia show or touring project. Art curation for national
or international exhibitions or art fair participation works on different principles as determined
by the hosts. What display does the project at hand need? What space, equipment, lighting,
designing, facilities, merchandising, budgeting, staff, permissions are required? Are there any live
events included in the project? The sequencing and flow with entry and exit points and a system of
evaluation and visitors’ feedback, the curator needs to put them all in place. The curator must be
aware of any risks involved in new commissions. Even in cases where there are separate teams for PR
and sponsorship, the curator needs to engage with them to ensure all printed and publicity material
including captions, invitations and catalogues echo the project in a cohesive house style. To avoid
any issues around fair practice, and conflict of interest, it helps if the terms and deliverables for a
given project, are agreed to in writing between the curator and the commissioner at an early stage.
The discipline given its dynamic growth, in the face of ever changing socio-economic environment
and technical advancements, is wide open with no set rules or prescription. To quote Daniel Birnbaum,

40

Director 53rd Venice Biennale,
“May be …., the curator wasn’t,
and may be shouldn’t be, such a
well-defined figure.” The discourse
around curatorial practice got
fast-tracked only in the 1990s as
some of the European universities
introduced training programmes
in the domain. The discipline is still
at a nascent stage in India where
most contemporary curators are
either art historians or those who
have learnt on the job through
internships and work placement
with galleries.
Imaginative approach combined
with good managerial acumen are
the two wheels on which effective
curatorial practice rests. Great
ideas not efficiently implemented
can fall flat as stated by Nicholas
Serota, Former Director of Tate
and current Chair of Arts Council
England as quoted in The Curator’s
Handbook by Adrian George.

Installation view of the exhibtion at Lalit Kala Akademi in Delhi March 2015

Installation view of the exhibtion atLalit Kala Akademi in Delhi March 2015

41

Installation view of the exhibtion at Lalit Kala Akademi in Delhi March 2015
42

Masayuki Taga

Mr. Masayuki Taga is a graduate
of Yokoyama City University. In
his professional career he has
started working in Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Japan. He has
served at Japanese Embassies
in India, Nepal, Ireland and
Southwest Asia Division in Tokyo.
He was Secretary, Embassy of
Japan in India and Pakistan;
Deputy Director (Head of India
Section), Southwest Asia Division;
Counsellor, Embassy of Japan in
Sri Lanka and Bangladesh; Senior
Regional Coordinator, Southwest
Asia Division. The Consulate
General of Japan in Kolkata,
under the leadership of Mr.
Taga, organised an exhibition of
representative dolls titled “Dolls of Japan” in association with and at Nehru
Children’s Museum, Kolkata. He has taken the key role in refurbishing the
Japan Gallery of Rabindra Bharati University Museum, Jorashanko, Kolkata.
Currently he is the Consul-General of Japan in Kolkata.

43

Talking Points : Speech
Delivered at KMOMA
Symposium

Masayuki Taga

1. Open space and building:

Since KMOMA will have a spacious area at Rajarhat, the effective utilisation the
open space of the premises of the museum will be as important as the KMOMA
building itself. It is very important that the surroundings and the environment
including the garden, scenery and the building be integrated as an expression
of the arts. I hope the area would have ambience of Kolkata and Bengal as a
whole.

2. Bengal elements
Since it will be a museum of modern art, it could be alright to have an avant garde
building. But since it locates in Kolkata and expected to be one of iconic landmarks
of Kolkata, it would be nice if some representative elements of “Bengal” can
be incorporated in its garden and building. For example, some elements/motif of
the cosmopolitan nature of Kolkata as well as some elements/motifs of traditional
Bengal can be mixed and presented in a modern manner.

3. Interior of the building

(1) While it would be important to have many individual and separate closed
spaces in the big building where several different exhibits can be displayed
without interfering with each other, it is also important to have comfortable public
areas where visitors can sit and relax. For example, placing comfortable chairs
in open space, having nice cafés and restaurants and a Museum shop would
enrich the ambience. The idea is, the museum would not only make serious art
lovers or artists happy, but also should attract common people who could visit with
family and children and spend substantial time there. Visitors should both enjoy
serious appreciation of arts and comfortable stay in the museum

(2) It would also be nice if there is space where integrated art forms can be show-
cased, i.e., a space where painting, sculpture, films, music may be presented
in an integrated manner, so that one arena would have a continuous flow and
intermingling of varied creative activities.

44

Poulomi Das

Smt. Poulomi Das is Consultant for
Museums and Heritage Spaces
with experience in interpretation,
research, curation, collection,
management and content
writing. She has been Senior
Assistant Curator, Special
Exhibitions and Marketing, and
Outreach Officer for the Dr.
Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City
Museum. She has served in a
number of museum and archival
positions including the Bihar and
Buddha Smriti Park Museums,
Patna; Monetary Museum, RBI,
Mumbai, and for preparations
of modernisation plan for the
Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata.
She is currently the Faculty
for History of Design, History
of Architecture, Cultural Theory and Integrative Seminar courses at ISDI
Parsons, Mumbai. She has been Nehru Trust Fellow to the British Museum
and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and International Leadership
Program Fellow, Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural
Affairs, USA.

45

What Do Museums Need
Today and How Are We
Addressing Needs?

Poulimi Das

A Museum is a place where one should lose one’s head. - Renzo Piano

According to ICOM (International Council of Museums), 2007, “A museum is a
non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development,
open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and
exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for
the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.”

The ICOM definition is the most important guideline that has globally guided new
museum creation and modernisation activities. It has helped museum professionals,
curators, designers, interpreters and architects move into a globalised world that
seeks to provide a platform for multiple narratives, perspectives and peoples. It
has made us constantly reposition ourselves and remember that we exist for our
visitors and our visitors only.

Visitor is central

The following diagram from Museum Environments LLC, an exhibit design firm,

(http://museumenvironments.com/museumexperience/) explains the importance

of the visitor:

We can achieve active visitor participation by including interpretation, among

other factors, in our conceptual process. Interpretation has been accurately

described by Freeman Tilden as, “an educational activity, which aims to reveal

meaning and relationships through the use of original objects, by first-hand
experience, and by illustrative media, rather than simply to communicate factual
information.” It emphasises visitor
satisfaction that results in a greater
appreciation and understanding of
a community with their immediate
heritage and environment.

But do we know our visitors in India?
There is no visitor research data
here that is available for museum
professionals as a reference tool so we
still rely on research carried out in the

46

UK and USA. If we do not recognise our visitors then how can we

effectively plan and design museums, exhibitions, interpretative
media, educational and outreach programmes for local, national
and international visitors who are real, potential and virtual?

Contemporary museum requisites
Some of the globally accepted requirements for museums to
function are now mainly in the fields of research, documentation,
digitisation, interpretation, digital technology and social media,
including Augmented /+ Virtual Reality, transforming museums into
inclusive spaces. Such spaces welcome a diverse range of audiences from all walks of life into the
Museums to interact with and immerse in their collections. Inclusive spaces address concerns that
range from disability access without physical barriers, along with access to information technologies,
such as the Internet, for equal participation.

In India, some of the challenges we face span administration, funding, sponsorship, human
resources, interpretation, digital technologies, and security and disaster management. There is a
lack in clarity and direction in these areas making it difficult to devise systems. Without adequate
systems and strategies, it becomes difficult for museums to operate according to the visitor needs
and convenience. Some of the laws and policies that govern Indian museums have remained
unchanged since a century when these institutions were used as socio-cultural-political tools by our
colonial rulers. After all, the museum establishment came into India with the British.

Some of the issues we face are in:
Administration:

• Multiple decision makers and laws and legal issues at the Union and State levels.
• Strategies unsuited to the needs and policies of the institution.
• Discrepancy between what is required and what is possible.
• No importance given to maintenance or long-term vision plans.

Funding:

• Lack of adequate funding and multiple funding policies.

• Plans for accepting external funding and sponsorship urgently required. eg. events like

Friday Late at the Vand A Museum, birthday parties at the British Museum, café and shop

themed with current exhibitions bring in alternate fund source.

Human Resources:
• Lack of adequate museum planning professionals or courses like museum studies or

heritage management.
• No recognition for independent museum professionals.
• Lack or absence of motivation and performance based incentive for Museum staff,
interpretation and digital technology.
• Misunderstanding of interpretation and usually confused with Education and Outreach.
• Excessive dependence on lecture at the cost of workshops and festival-based events.
• Digital technology is not acknowledged as a cognitive resource shared without

hindrances at one’s convenience.
• Digitisation is not just scanning and saving data.
• Access not yet accepted as essential to creation of inclusive spaces.
• No uniform school syllabi making it difficult to devise educational

programmes.

Security and Disaster Management:

• Lack of adequate safety, security or disaster management Strategies for artifact, staff,

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