Walk ahead a few paces and they will be greeted by five 86-inch vertical screens they can scroll through, like an Instagram page, except that here, they will be browsing thousands of works of art that are part of MAP’s collection. Visitors will also get to interact with a 3D hologram of the late artist MF Husain — the result of a collaboration with Accenture —which can answer a host of questions, from a mundane “Where are you from?” to the more interesting “Why are you obsessed with Madhuri Dixit?”. All this, of course, is apart from the works of art, numbering over 70,000 and divided into six categories — from contemporary art to photography to popular culture, which will be on display across four galleries periodically.
A labour of love of Bengaluru-based industrialist and longtime art collector Abhishek Poddar, with museum director Kamini Sawhney giving shape to his vision, MAP hopes not just to be a cultural landmark but also recast the way museums are perceived. “Our idea is to take art into the heart of the community and change the way people experience it. Museums in India are considered boring but we want to change that. It should be a place for exchange of ideas, an interactive space for discovery,” says Sawhney. The idea to let anyone light an inaugural lamp is part of the vision to democratise art and make the experience participatory, she says.
MAP is not alone in these ambitions. Bengaluru is witnessing something of a renaissance of museums, which have different themes but are unified in the scope of ambition, the use of technology and other innovations to engage visitors, and the backing of corporate and individual philanthropy.
These include the upcoming Science Gallery Bengaluru; and Tech, Startup & Innovation Museum; as well as the Indian Music Experience Museum(IME), which opened in late 2018. The country’s first metropolitan museum focused on Bengaluru is also in the works, as part of the new Kengeri campus of the Indian Institute for Human Settlements.
PUBLIC LIFE
A common thread running through these new institutions is the aim to break the perception of museums as dead spaces. Thus, in addition to exhibition galleries that will host exhibitions or “research festivals,” the 140,000 sq ft Science Gallery Bengaluru will have a public lab complex with seven laboratories and experimental spaces that include a food lab and a materials lab that people will be welcome to submit proposals to experiment in.
The concept of a public lab complex was a response to one of the questions executive director Jahnavi Phalkey asked herself when she came on board — where would someone with an idea go? Phalkey, a science historian who taught at King’s College, London, was inspired by the story of CV Raman.
“For the first 10 years of his professional life, Raman worked as an accountant. In the evenings, he would use the public labs of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, which is where he did his Nobel prize-winning research. So the question was, where is that space now going to be,” says Phalkey. For the Indian Music Experience Museum, which encapsulates the history of Indian music across nine galleries, being able to invite the public into a space where they are encouraged to touch, feel and interact was a priority, says museum director Preema John.
“Museums were experienced as alienating spaces, where a lot of focus was on showcasing in vitrines beautiful and expensive artefacts which were to be observed from a distance —a distance that’s both psychological and physical. IME’s idea was to dispel this understanding,” says John.
“Also, music, unlike other forms of art, is something you feel — no amount of visual representation can be a substitute,” she adds. This principle is tangible, literally, from the time you enter the “sound garden” of the museum in south Bengaluru, where you can play any of the 10 unusual instruments there, including the singing stones — two black stones that can be coaxed to produce sonorous tunes but only if rubbed the right way.
Inside, the galleries spread across two levels engagingly portray the journey of Indian music from the classical to “songs of protest” to the latest in hip-hop and rock through a host of artefacts like costumes and instruments, audio and video clips, accompanied by succinct write-ups. One of the exhibits invites you to combine different tracks and create your own tune. MR Jaishankar, executive chairman of real estate venture Brigade Group, hit upon the idea of setting up IME after seeing the Jimmy Hendrix museum in Seattle.
“It made me think that if a whole museum can be dedicated to a single musician, India, which has thousands of musicians, needed a museum to showcase its heritage.” Similarly, the Tech, Startup and Innovation Museum, announced last month with a seed corpus of `100 crore and aiming to be open at least partially by mid2025, will be looking to harness technology to find interesting ways to engage visitors while telling the story of the country’s
prowess in technology and the journey of its startups, says Accel partner Prashanth Prakash, who mooted the concept.
“A lot of technological advancements have happened in the last couple of years and not many museums have come up since then. Using those, there is an opportunity to make this museum more experiential and immersive than ever,” he says.
While he conceptualised it, Prakash says a host of people have expressed support, from Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to Infosys cofounder Kris
Gopalakrishnan, among others.
BACKING BENGALURU
The other new museums, too, have found a range of supporters among companies, foundations and generous individuals, some of whom are backing more than one initiative. Kris Gopalakrishnan, for instance, is supporting the tech museum and, along with Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and philanthropist Rohini Nilekani, has donated `51 crore to Science Gallery Bengaluru. This matches the grant given by the Karnataka government, which has also donated land and pays part of the running costs.
“Museums are places where people can learn by experiencing. It’s important for us to create public spaces where such learning can happen — it’s what makes a city more livable, more exciting and raises its stature as an international city,” says Gopalakrishnan, now chairman, Axilor Ventures.
Mazumdar-Shaw is also a donor to the Museum of Art and Photography, a private initiative by Poddar who raised `50 crore for it by auctioning some of the art works in his collection, apart from donating 7,000 art works to the museum. Other donors, too, have come forward to support both MAP and IME.
THE CITY & THE MUSEUM
What role will these museums play in the evolving horizon of Bengaluru? Phalkey says these new institutions are capable of building a life of the mind for the city. “And I think that’s also why philanthropy is supporting it, to build a city that is vibrant.”
For an emerging megacity of the scale and size of Bengaluru, if you are unable to reflect on your past, present and future, you would be lost — museums offering that space would be central to the cultural life and identity of the city, says Aromar Revi, director, Indian Institute for Human Settlements.
“Museums are also about democratising access to knowledge, culture and experience. It’s that sense of interest and wonder, which help us experiment with new ideas, innovate and build an inclusive public culture,” he says, emphasising access to people from all walks of life, especially young people.
Entry to the Science Gallery will be completely free, while IME offers free entry to government school students, and there will be no charge to view the ground floor of MAP (other spaces are ticketed). Prakash, too, says admission to the tech museum will be free for students while, others might be charged a nominal fee. Despite this, he surmises, getting people to come could be a challenge, at least initially.
“It’s easier to build these places but more difficult to get the right footfalls.” He could perhaps take heart from the experience of college students Vaishnavi TH and Pooja N, who were at IME on a recent Thursday afternoon. “I liked the interactive aspect the most,” says Vaishnavi, 22, who plans to come again with her family, while Pooja, 20, says the museum exceeded her expectations. And while both students had lived all their lives in Bengaluru, this, they said, was the first museum they were visiting in the city.