Museum Influencers of India, 2022
Over the past year, with lockdown restrictions being lifted and the public fervently returning to the arts and culture sphere, Indian museums have tried to expand and diversify their means of interaction with their audience as well as incorporate, within their work, more relevant issues such as those adversely affecting the globe in the present times.
In our second edition of the Museum Influencers List, we recognise and celebrate the achievements of some museum professionals who have adopted new engagement, education and dissemination strategies.
Deepthi Sasidharan
To Deepthi Sasidharan, museums are the most important shared spaces. "They reflect stories that communities want to tell of themselves," she says.
She is the founder director of Eka Archiving Services. Using social media platforms like Instagram and Clubhouse, Deepti has been taking up interesting narratives and topics related to the museum sector.
In 2021 her organization conducted photography, documentation and research in the historic Masina Hospital in Mumbai which during the course of the project, was a Covid Care Facility. She also worked on the ‘Outliers, Rebels, Disruptors; Delhi Silpi Chakra - 70 years on’ show for the revamped Dhoomimal Gallery in New Delhi.
She's had scholarship stints in Portugal's Fundacao Oriente, and New York's Fulbright. She's worked with the Anokhi Museum and the Amprapali Museum in Jaipur, The City Palace collections of Udaipur, the Museum of Christian Art in Goa, the Chowmahalla Palace exhibitions, the 400-year-old Bastion Bungalow museum in Fort Kochi and the Museum of Paper Money in Bengaluru. She also curated the notable Indira: Life of Courage exhibition to mark 100 years of the leader in Allahabad and in New Delhi. She has co-authored two books, 'Indira: A Life of Courage' (2017), and 'Treasures of the Deccan' (2018).
Gaurav Ogale
Gaurav Ogale is the Head of Design and Visual Content at Sarmaya Arts Foundation and leads the team that creates amazing Sarmaya visual campaigns that delight us. Gaurav’s work evokes nostalgia through a sense of individual aesthetic and visual documentation. His work spans through genres like advertising design, arts & culture and design academics.
Ogale perceives museums as personal spaces that coexist with our larger histories. Through Sarmaya Arts Foundation he answers questions relevant to today's youth and the importance of their interactions and interest towards modern museums.
According to Ogale, “Audiences today are consuming stories in stages, something they want to save and re-visit later; the digital medium gives one that freedom to immerse in the stories. In the post-pandemic world, as much as there has been a lot done with interactive technologies, I think we all are itching to go and touch and feel objects and textures and see them in their true essence.”
In 2021, Sarmaya in collaboration with sound artist Farah Mulla created Majha, a audio-visual art installation for Sarmaya’s Shifting Selves at TARQ. The installation consisted of 6 pieces closely linked to Gaurav’s own memories and perceptions.
Karni Singh Jasol
In 2021 we lost one of the leading museum influencers, Dr. Karni Singh Jasol, Jodhpur Mehrangarh Museum Trust Director. Dr. Jasol needs no introduction in the museum sector. Under his leadership, Mehrangarh Fort has been awarded the UNESCO Asia Pacific Award of Excellence in 2005, the Fassa Bortolo Domus Award for Architectural Conservation in 2012. Time magazine in its 2007 “Best of Asia” issue rated the Fort as the Best Fortress in Asia. Dr. Jasol led the way in actively engaging audiences through initiatives such as Rajasthan International Folk Festival (RIFF); World Sufi Spirit Festival; Jodhpur Flamenco & Gypsy Festival.
Over the span of his career, he received several prestigious awards, including The Charles Wallace Award for study on the collection, management, and storage system at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London); the Nehru Trust Award for study on the status of museum education in Indian museums; the Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award by CAA College Art Association, Fulbright Scholar Recognition by The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, and The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of United States Department of State; and Certificate of Merit from UNESCO for key person responsible for Museum Artifacts Conservation and Interpretation at Chowmohallah Palace, Hyderabad, India.
Sabyasachi Mukherjee
Mr. Mukherjee says, “A museum is not merely a repository of art and antiquity but also a centre of learning... Even as the CSMVS has evolved and grown in popularity over time, it has also become accountable to the different communities living in the city.”
Since 2007, when Mukherjee--who is also the director of the postgraduate diploma programme in museology and art conservation at CSMVS Institute at the University of Mumbai--assumed leadership of CSMVS, the museum has undergone various revamps including the establishment of a conservation centre, a new children's museum, an institutional archive, new galleries, research and educational initiatives. CSMVS has played a pivotal role in Mumbai’s cultural scene. Its mandate is to reach out to an expanding public through several means and it offers a rich and diverse programme throughout the year.
Under Mukherjee’s leadership, UNESCO awarded the museum the 2010 Asia-Pacific Heritage Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation. A frequent lecturer, he is also an active member of committees such as the Bizot Group, a distinguished group of international museum directors and the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK. Director General Sabyasachi Mukherjee has recently been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as an International Honorary Member.
Tejshvi Jain
Tejshvi Jain is the Founding Director of ReReeti Foundation. They work with museums to create transformative experiences that make their collection relevant to their target audiences. The foundation also helps museums become an integral part of their local community by engaging key stakeholders such as families, schools and companies.
In its latest initiative, Indian Museums Against Climate Change (IMACC), ReReeti has brought together 8 different museums that are spread across Bangalore, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi, and Rajasthan. Tejashvi Jain highlighted the UN’s recognition of museums as key conversation starters for climate change. Further IMACC plans to organise workshops by sustainability experts every quarter online.
A recipient of the Art Think South Asia Fellowship and Nehru Trust for Indian Collections at the V&A, she has recently made a documentary, Connected History: Sindhi Colony and Partition of India, to explore the less told stories of Partition. Made under the project called ReReeti UnDivided Identities-Unknown, this film hopes to make history more relevant.
