The Centre for Culture, Media and Governance (CCMG) was established in 2006, as part of Jamia Millia Islamia’s endeavom’ to foster interdisciplinary orientations and nurture emergent fields of study, CCMG is configured as a focal point of research, teaching, training and policy advocacy in the domain of communication in South Asia. CCMG has been identified as the Nodal Centre for Curatorial Research and will engage with the contiguous domains of policy and practice of curating in 20th century India. This project will take place across two phases: Phase 1 —Mapping (26 months), which will result in an illustrated report; Phase Z—Advocacy (14 months) will begin by identifying a core set of issues for advocacy, and will focus on stakeholder meetings and the creation of a policy-oriented document or White Paper. 

The research on curatorial policy during Phase 1 will consist of three, variously inter-related, components: (1) Mapping exhibition policy in India during the 20th century; (2) Documenting select curatorial experiences over the last decade; and (3) Analysing the evolving articulation of curatorial practice inthe public domain. Through a study of curatorial activity under two generic typologies—plastic arts (painting, sculpture, and graphics) and electronic arts (video, film, soundkresearchers will investigate institutional structures, political and economic environments, and the evolving relationship between aesthetics and spectatorship, exhibition practice and public culture, i.e. factors that facilitate the social spaces forming the life-world of contemporary culture. While initially the focus will be on literary research of available related materials on exhibition policy, towards the end of the first year research tours will be conducted to meet with museum staff, curators, artists, art historians and exhibition designers. Simultaneously, the researchers will attend the workshops and activities conducted by the other nodal centers within the Curatorship programme to study and document emergent ideas and discourse around curatorial practice today.

This study will result in an illustrated report encapsulating both the investigative process as well as the analytical outcomes of the project Since CCMG emphasises close links between its research and teaching programmes, select components of the study will also provide pedagogical material for two papers in the Centre’s Masters course,‘Creativity, Culture & Commerce’ and ‘Policy Research & Evaluation’. A policy dialogue meeting will take place towards the end of Phase 1 to discuss the progress made and identify a core set of issues for advocacy—a set determined as much by the findings from the mapping exercise as by their relevance to the wider curatorship programme.

On reviewing learnings from Phase 1, Phase 2 will primarily focus on a) stakeholder meetings and b) the creation of a policy-oriented document or White Paperr. All the principal stakeholders in the field of curatorship in India (government museums, relevant Union (administrative) ministries, private galleries, auction houses, independent curators, donor agencies, artists and critics) will attend a series of meetings with project staff and select participants from other Nodal centres. It is expected that these interactions will yield a rich body of experiential and analytical knowledge on this nascent area of cultural practice. This knowledge will then be consolidated in the form of a policy-oriented document, for now referred to as a White Paper, for advocacy directed at formal institutions. It is likely that this process will also yield, as a by-product, an academically-oriented working paper for CCMG.

The impact of this research project will be felt as state arts representatives slowly begin to recognise the need to support critical curatorial projects and initiatives in both the public and private arts sector. The ability of this Nodal Centre project to influence the practices of cultural and educational institutions, particularly those run by the state (museums, universities and other cultural bodies), can create an atmosphere within which the other working projects of the Curatorship programme can flourish.

 

This description is part of the institutional records created by IFA at the onset of the grant. The project may have changed in due course as reflected in the deliverables from the Grantee.