Saturday, April 14, 2012

An ardent collector looks to create art culture

Open six days a week, at no entry fees, Kiran Nadar’s new museum venue is another example of a new trend of cultural philanthropy that can be attributed to seasoned collectors Lekha and Anupam Poddar and their Devi Art Foundation in Gurgaon. Established in 2008, it’s a multi-level exhibit space hosts several well-curated rotating shows. What sets apart the new eclectic initiative is the location - a shopping complex visited by thousands of people daily - that works to serve her vision.

On her part, Kiran Nadar has been collecting art for close to two decades, which she now wants to be made accessible to the masses. The opening show at KNMA, entitled ‘Time Unfolded’, deftly traced a visual trajectory of the Indian contemporary & modern art. It featured nearly 70 paintings sculptures and other works by early Bengal School artists like Jamini Roy to innovative contemporary multimedia practitioners like Vishal Dar. In its debut week itself, the new museum venue registered an average of a hundred visitors or so each day.

Her hopes to build on the popularity through a range of promotional activities over time, to widen the museum's appeal. A complete museum shop has on offer prints, books and a range of art memorabilia. To conduct guided tours for groups, schoolchildren in particular, special support is available. Kiran Nadar hopes that children will form a significant chunk of the potential visitors. She cites how families visit museums in the New York city and how experiencing art there is a weekend activity.

According to her, we in India must reacquaint ourselves with the art that we are producing, but there are sadly few avenues for that.” Elaborating on the idea, her public statement for the museum’s grand launch, mentions: “Given what museums such as the Guggenheim have done for Bilbao or what the Museum of Islamic Art is doing for Doha, Qatar, we hope to build a definitive world-class museum that will add to the splendor of New Delhi.”

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