Making music at the museum – The Hindu

Bengalurus Museum of Art & Photographys new digital festival merges art, learning and melodies

When I was in college at the Faculty of Fine Arts MSU, Baroda, the museum was a place students went to play hooky. It was never to look at the beautiful replica of the Dancing Girl of the Indus Valley Civilisation, the stunning collection of Chola bronzes, or the giant skeleton of the whale that hung from the ceiling. That was only appealing to nerds like myself.

Fortunately, in the last 20 years, things have changed. Museums are no longer dusty and desolate; they are well lit, multisensorial interactive spaces that are led by an enthusiastic team of curators and collaborators, coming up with new ways of engaging their audience. And it is heartening that the change is happening in both public and private sectors, working across artistic disciplines.

Internationally, the Louvre and Tate are working with augmented reality to allow immersive experiences. Recently, Victoria & Albert in London invited visitors to tumble down the rabbit hole with their Curious Alice exhibit that worked with virtual reality. In India, too, museums such as Bhua Daji Lad (BDL), Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, CSMVS (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya) and the Goa Art Museum have upgraded and updated their approach and programming.

Grammy winner (and recent second time nominee) Ricky Kej

Museums have become vibrant institutions of learning and entertainment. In India, this potential is only just being recognised, and we have a lot of catching up to do, says Tasneem Mehta, BDLs managing trustee, adding that they have created a comprehensive cultural campus for all age groups covering not just art and culture, but a range of natural history, environment and socio-economic subjects.

At Bengalurus Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), the experiment is with music. This weekend, it is hosting Art is Life: SoundFrames. A three-day digital festival in collaboration with the Berklee College of Music, Boston it will present over 25 events inspired by music, including concerts, performances, panel discussions, film talks, educational workshops and exhibitions. Featuring will be more than 65 artists from around India and the world such as Ambi and Bindu Subramaniam of SubraMania, Grammy winner (and recent second time nominee) Ricky Kej, musical talents from IndianRaga, young Hindustani maestro Pandit Sanjeev Abhyankar and the Darbari Qawwals of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya Dargah.

The festival is jointly curated by MAPs director, Kamini Sawhney, and Annette Philip, artistic director of the Berklee India Exchange and an award-winning musician, educator, and arts entrepreneur. Art is at the heart of any community. The digital museum intends to bring together its various aspects, not just the visual arts, says Sawhney, explaining how the Art is Life festival, launched last year, had a great response. We are celebrating its anniversary with the theme of music, as a positive response to the pandemic.

Annette Philip, artistic director, Berklee India Exchange

Map will also host five workshops that will include voice therapy, and a section on capturing the profile of the city through its sound (sounds of the sea in Mumbai, the bustle of Old Delhi). We put out a public call encouraging producers to work with the Ableton Software [a digital audio workstation for both macOS and Windows] that will help them integrate the sounds of their cities. There are entries from Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Delhi.

At MAP we have always been about reimagining the museum so that it is not just a repository of objects, but also of ideas, conversations and interactions. A community cant be collaborative without tapping into its creative aspect, which is why we must be inclusive to all aspects from folk to classical, popular to traditional. We must help people to collapse the hierarchy, says Sawhney.

The idea is one she shares with Phillip. Both our institutions hope to not only preserve and sustain cultural conversations about and through the arts, we both actively engage and welcome community participation in the creation of art and music, Phillip tells me by email. I believe this is the first of many dynamic collaborations Berklee will have with MAP going forward. While the entire programme is stunning, she concludes that she is particularly excited about Women of the World, Ricky Kej and Sounds of the City.

From December 3-5. The digital festival is also accessible to the visually-disabled and incorporates Indian sign language.

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Making music at the museum - The Hindu