On the contrary: The VAGaries of art and artists

“Fools,” it has been said, “rush in where angels fear to tread.” And sometimes they blow whistles and unfurl umbrellas and sit on public streets to ensure their foolishness gets the attention they crave. At least that’s what a group of artists have been doing over the last few weeks to try and “save” the Venkatappa Art Gallery (VAG) from “falling into the hands of private sector predators”.

Their absurdities are all the evidence we need that people capable of producing fine art – and some of them are indeed fine artists – don’t automatically also have the ability to make sense or be honest. Lest I am being too obscure, dear reader, let me explain the situation.

Sometime last year, the Government of Karnataka decided to invite corporates and business houses to adopt any of 46 tourist destinations and develop them into worthwhile attractions from their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds. The idea followed the pattern set in Delhi, where the Taj Mahal and the Qutb Minar, among others, have been similarly farmed out for maintenance and development to corporates.

The invitation required the takers to provide all the funds and management of the destinations, plough any income that might accrue from their efforts back into the destinations retaining absolutely nothing themselves, and, having developed it, to hand it back to the government after five years.

The Tasveer Foundation, an organisation set up by businessman and art collector Abhishek Poddar, was invited to adopt the VAG. An MoU was signed in the presence of the Chief Minister, the Minister of Tourism and Culture and several other members of the Cabinet.

Six months later, Mr Poddar had managed to set up a Board of Management that included Nirupama Rao, former Foreign Minister and Ambassador; Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon; Arundhati Raja of Jagriti; Som Mittal, former CEO of Nasscom, and others of similar standing and respectability. He pledged Rs 10 crores to the project. The Board drew up a plan to take the scope of the new VAG substantially beyond its current means, and commissioned a renowned firm of architects who produced a stunning design for the new VAG.

Even more exciting, the new age VAG would take its place among the most influential museums of its kind in this part of the world. For example, (and this is not being spoken of publicly because it isn't final, and speaking of it will not be helpful), there have been two meetings with the Number One museum in the world - whose representatives travelled to Bangalore for those meetings - to set up a regular tie up with the new VAG. A first not just for Bangalore but indeed for our country.

Then all hell broke loose. In our country, we can always count on some rag, tag and bobtail herd to leap on anything that they think is about to occupy what they believe is their exclusive domain. And so it happened this time as well. A gang of artists of the city have decided that the government has no right to “give away” their VAG to a private operator; that this “public” space would soon be transformed into a money-making racket; and that Mr Poddar and his cronies would be laughing all the way to their bank vaults. Never mind that most of them, the senior artists specially, seldom if ever show their work at the VAG; indeed seldom, if ever, set foot in it.

As the days turned into weeks, their shrieks of outrage grew increasingly hysterical, their claims and accusations more and more fanciful. When I asked Mr Poddar why he wasn’t responding, he asked “how many lies can I fight?”.  
Finally, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, a member of the new VGA’s Board, and one of the city’s most respected and best-loved philanthropists, came out into the open and wrote a piece (“What Price Philanthropy?”) explaining it all. You can – indeed you must! – read it at her blog. The link is  http://kiranmazumdarshaw.blogspot.in/     

One sentence in Kiran’s piece says it all: the most prominent victim of all the noise and whistle blowing and unfurled black umbrellas and skirmishes in government offices is . . . the truth.

The artists who are agitating have refused to meet Abhishek Poddar to either find out his intentions or to state their concerns and demands. They have no idea of his plans. They only know they are against them, whatever they mght be. Their raison d'etre for this agitation ranges from obscure at best to fictional and downright fraudulent at worst.  

I could end by quoting from Kiran’s blog: It is time for the people of the city to stand up and take responsibility for what they would like to see for the future of their city and for their children. It’s time for every citizen who is interested in Bangalore and in its advancement, to stand up and voice what they would like. These projects are not being done just for art and culture, they are a valid attempt to make Bangalore a better place for everyone. Are we really going to stand by and let a group of disenfranchised, conspiracy theorists block such a move?

But I would like to add questions of my own: What is the point of the government inviting companies and corporates to adopt the State’s greatest landmark projects, develop them and make them part of a planned tourism venture at no cost to the State itself? What is the value of the MoU that it signed with Mr Abhishek Poddar and the Tasveer Foundation, and indeed all the others who have come forward to support this initiative? Why should they take the government's invitation seriously any more? Why should they put their CSR funds at risk if, after they committing themselves to the projects they adopt, and starting to spend money on them as the Tasveer Foundation has done, they will come under the kind of mindless attacks that the artists of Bangalore have initiated against the Tasveer Foundation?