|
Background: Arts and Culture grantmaking
in India has since Independence been the
exclusive province of its government. Over
the past 60 years, central and (to a limited
extent) state governments have assembled
several massive arts institutions, training
institutes, libraries, museums and archives,
for theatre, music, visual arts, literature
and film. The central and state Akademis,
the National School of Drama, the National
Film Development Corporation and National
Film Archives, and key university-based
initiatives in the arts have historically
made for India an enviable arts infrastructure,
for which the ministry of culture spends
an annual Rs600 crore (approved Plan outlay
2008-09). This infrastructure, in its museums,
archives and other repositories, also includes
India’s major art heritage.
However, as many reviews of India’s national
arts institutions, most notably the 1992 PN
Haksar review of India’s central Akademis,
points out, this entire infrastructure is
in an advanced state of crisis.
|
|
The institutions
are in considerable decay, partially
institutional decay, but even more important,
a crisis of growing irrelevance, having
been unable to renew into the 21st century
their role in either facilitating or
housing innovative art practice |
|
|
The archival
repositories they contain, of print,
visual art, cinema and music, are in
imminent danger of being lost forever.
|
The Sir Ratan Tata Trust’s Arts and Culture
programme therefore recognises the twin need
for
|
|
An institutional
revitalisation of India’s arts,
and |
|
|
A strategy for
conservation of its historical legacy
in literature, print, music and film.
Institutional revitalisation will have
to happen in both the metropolises and
in India’s smaller cities, and
will have to work with the capacity
to revitalise and sustain crumbling
infrastructure, through building national
arts networks and through supporting
new institutions of dance, theatre and
visual arts. The emphasis on conservation
needs to recognise the extent of the
crisis facing India’s museums and
archives, its legacies of painting,
print and celluloid, and devise in partnership
with the world’s leading authorities
in the field, new strategies and benchmarks
for restoration of its legacy. |
The Arts & Culture programme under
SP 2011-12 aims to strategically support
institutional revitalisation of the arts
in India and support conservation of India’s
cultural legacy through its two key initiatives
– ‘Arts, Institutions and Infrastructures’
and ‘Arts and Culture Industries’.
To know more about the Trust’s Arts
and Culture initiative, click
here
For a visual journey, click
here
|
