Artist M.V. Ramana Reddy was recently elected as the new president of the Hyderabad Art Society unanimously, and he is ready to take on the challenge. And it’s a big one.
It was under the presidency of Nawab Salar Jung that the Hyderabad Art society was formed in 1941 but it has — over the years — faded away to near oblivion.
“During the Nizam’s period there was a lot of encouragement for different forms of art. But the society has not been doing much since the last two decades,” says Ramana Reddy.
He adds, “It was only because of internal conflicts that activities of HAS had stagnated, and nobody could concentrate on the development of the Society and welfare of the art community. Now, there is lot of responsibility on HAS to justify the needs and requirement of the art community and work for its development simultaneously,” he says, adding, “But at the same time, I feel very proud to say that eminent artists like M.F. Husain, Nandlal Bose and others have participated in the Society’s annual exhibitions.”
“The new state, Telangana, is a hub of arts. And many eminent artists like Thota Vaikuntam, Surya Prakash and Laxma Goud are from the state. But there always has been a gap between the needs and necessities of the artists and the administration of the government. This gap has to be filled. What we require and need should be understood by the government. Nowadays, even an auto-rickshaw driver has a health insurance and artists, who are sacrificing their life for culture, don’t,” he says, adding, “The government should give us health insurance because we have contributed a lot for Telangana. I organised 13 camps since 2008, spending lakhs of my own money.
“Telangana is currently concentrating on those in the music industry because they have mass appeal. The government thinks whoever has a mic has more voice. We don’t have a mic but we have a brush and paint and we will make it count.”
Talking about the future of HAS, Reddy adds, “My dream is to organise a huge biennale like the one held in Kochi. The Society should be similar to Tamil Nadu’s Artists’ Village. We are the fifth largest city in the country but in the context of art we are almost last. We have to get into at least the top five. There is lack of encouragement. We surely have eminent artists but there won’t be anyone else to take the legacy ahead if we don’t continue to support the art community.”
He continues, “The population of Kerala is much less than Andhra Pradesh but they have a Lalit Kala Akademi and we don’t — it’s because of our lack of interest. Everyone is busy concentrating on just themselves and nobody is free to concentrate on the art community as a whole.”
HAS, under the presidency of Ramana Reddy, who has been appointed for two years, has a lot of activities lined up.
“We are taking opinions from various people and I’m also implementing what I had planned. On November 14, we have an art exhibition at Muse Art Gallery. We will try to raise funds from that event for our platinum jubilee celebrations. So we have asked artists to contribute one piece of artwork from which 60 per cent would be taken by HAS. Next year will see a lot of activities.”
He continues, “The Exhibition Society has positively reacted to organise a three-day event for youth and children. The exhibition has been very popular for decades and I plan to have an art fest for the youth where we can create awareness about art for the upcoming generation.”
Ramana Reddy adds that in the last two decades there were no new memberships but now around 200 people are interested to join.
“We don’t even know who most of the members are... There are no artists in the list. Many senior artists are not members too. This is because the Society was not oriented towards the art community. This will not be repeated. A minimum of 200 people are ready to join and from next week onwards we would announce new memberships. And not just artists, even art lovers can be members. The Society is open to everybody, even people from other regions, and everyone will get similar encouragement. We are a fair and transparent body without any regional, communal and nationality barriers.”
He concludes, “This is a group for the artists and by the artists. Our next goal is to find and create a place on the lines of the Artists’ Village. We haven’t approached the government yet. But we will meet Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and other concerned ministers and we are hopeful that we will get a positive response.”
