The National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) is going to expand very soon. The new branches are going to open up in Kolkata and the North east. The central government has granted funds for the same already. But along with this expansion, some existing galleries like in Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi, will also get a facelift.
NGMA, New Delhi
Now there are a lot of reasons the government is funding for these expansions. With the rise of internet, the world has become a global village. Some sections of the society see this as a direct threat to the cultural heritage of the country. Cultural preservation is one of the prime objectives of the government. However, times are changing and there is a new formation of the way old art used to be expressed. The same can be seen via the representation of Modern Art.
The new centers of NGMA that will be built around Kolkata and North East will have touches of those constructed n Mumbai and Bangalore. The Kolkata center is most likely to be reinstated as a form of historic Library Building located near the Governor’s House. But the space for North East center is still under construction and it is being finalized and will soon be on the list.
Modern Art
Art has often been repressed with new art forms often getting unnoticed. This is probably why the government is coming up with new schemes and grants to aid this section. Recently, the Union Ministry has taken up a project worth Rs. 470 crore which shall be called the National Mission on Cultural Mapping and Roadmap.
This scheme will go on a talent hunt spree from Mathura and it will go to over 640,000 villages across the country for the next three years. Meanwhile NGMA is still struggling with its resources. The Comptroller and Auditor general (CAG) has recently released a report according to which the cultural ministry has been unable to fill up key positions at the NGMA for over a decade. This has invariably led the NGMA to a handicap. They haven’t been able to relocate more than 16,000 art works in their possession. This means they still lie in their art storage system without being able to generate any revenue at all.
This equates to a waste of investment amounting to Rs. 3.81 crore. Despite such deficiencies, the NGMA continues to try to win more audience. The center has recently grated then the heritage building in Kolkata (presently under the Archaeological Survey of India) to the NGMA.
But is this a long term solution? Perhaps it will enhance the outreach of the institution, but there are a lot of factors at work. The contemporary Indian art is still at an infant stage. There have been many artists in India who have gained a lot of appreciated from the world over (in monetary terms), but the domestic demand is yet to see a sky rise.
This is a small budget project. The government has allocated 4 crores to renovate the old heritage building in Kolkata. The director general Adwaita Gadanayak will visit Kolkata to see the heritage buildings to finalize the space for their museum.
Canvas captured
Meanwhile some time earlier, the cultural behemoths received a wakeup call from the finance ministry recently. It urged them to generate their own revenue or at least about 25-30% at the beginning and to run the same till they achieve complete self sufficiency. This might seem like a nice idea at first, but it is not as much when you look deeper.
In reality, the private initiatives have proven to be more effective to sustain the cultural achievements of the country. Unless there are professional cultural managers or art historians running these institutions, there will not be the growth that the government aims to provide it.
So while they are expanding their bases horizontally, what they really need to expand is their position vertically, so that there are higher ranks and qualified professionals that steer these museums in the right direction.
But the NGMA has always been an exception. It has always been one of the best performing government-run museums. But we cannot ignore the fact that even today only a handful of people have been going to the shows. There is a wide room for the collaborative initiatives and the shows that would unearth new talent from all parts of the country.
Exhibitions
While they are expanding to Kolkata, North East, and renovating their old heritage buildings, the attraction of crowd and the discovery of new artists is what the need of the hour is.
Talking about crowds, the NGMA is going to expand its Mumbai building soon simply because the current one is deemed unsuitable for holding major art exhibitions. Not just this, there are a lot of efforts from the NGMA’s side to recuperate. Apparently they are planning to hold an ‘Art Adda’ every 15 days at NGMA Mumbai. This is because according to reports, more and more artists gather together at the Jehangir Art Gallery.
At present, it seems like the center at the North East may take a little while longer to happen because the center is yet to find an appropriate building in this region. They have the funds ready to build one at the same time, but they might need the state governments to come onboard to find the proper place.
Over the years, the NGMA has hosted several prestigious exhibitions. In the 1997, the NGMA Delhi and Mumbai also exhibited a collection of artifacts from the British Museum – ‘The Enduring Image’. The British Council joined in the celebration of the 50th year of Independence at that time.
NAGM Headquarter
Looking back, the Bangalore museum may be the only one that has shown a slag in hosting exhibitions. Both Mumbai and Delhi have hosted shows which have been huge hits. “No Parsi Is An Island” (2014) and “Shoonya Ghar” (2016) happened in Mumbai and Delhi respectively.
This pace can improve a lot more if the expansions focus not only on the demography but also on their own management resource.
What do you think?