As our art and craft traditions flicker for want of patronage, Sunil Munjal of the Hero group is doing his bit with the Serendipity festival in Goa
The figures are frightening. Every year, for the last 30 years, one per cent of arts and crafts has died. This means India has already lost 30 per cent of its known arts and crafts heritage. It is scary to even imagine what will happen in the next 25 years and I feel saving them is something worth doing,” says Sunil Kant Munjal, founder, Serendipity Arts Trust. You may know him as the man behind the Hero Group but he is now a culture crusader with the Serendipity Arts Trust (SAT), a unique social project that aims to revive patronage of the arts. SAT organises Serendipity Arts Festival, a curated showcase of the visual and performing arts — visual arts, photography, dance, music, theatre and craft — along with food. The second edition of the festival will be held between December 15 and 22 in Goa.
The festival, which is organised with the objective of reviving dying cultures of India by providing a correct platform to artists, sees craftsmen from across India showcase their talent. And Munjal feels that there is a reason why corporates need to step in to save them. Says he, “The arts have been an important part of our cultural heritage and enjoyed royal patronage earlier. Then it was the turn of religious leaders followed by the government of the day. What the government does is admirable but that’s not enough. So there is a need now to have many more patrons. While some individuals, families and corporates are doing their bit, the size and scale of our country as well as the cultural diversity of our arts and crafts traditions demand a bigger involvement. So our objectives also include encouraging those who want to organise something similar themselves.”
While the festival is a one-time event, Munjal has taken up the cause of arts throughout the year. “The festival is only a window which showcases what the possibilities are. We have launched educational programmes and residencies for artists through SAT. We work with artists and artwork and figure out a way of encouraging those making or attempting to ensure a sustainable livelihood. If their skill heritage is not remunerative, they will just stop.”
Another thing that SAT is doing differently is taking an inter-disciplinary approach of connecting and growing artforms. “If you look back 250 years, there were no clear divisions of our art traditions, they seamlessly sort of flowed into each other. It was the British who bracketed the arts as music, theatre or dance. We are, therefore, looking at creating an inter-disciplinary and cohesive approach. We did it for 14-15 streams last year and we are looking at 25 projects this year. The energy that a cooperative project gives out is absolutely amazing and phenomenal,” says Munjal.
The foundation has an office in Delhi where they expose artists to musicians, historians, story-tellers, economists and so on to give them an overall exposure to the way the world buys art. This helps them innovate and become contemporary. “We aren’t directing them to paint in a certain way or do things in a certain way. We are just showing them the possibilities and expanding horizons,” says Munjal.
The debut festival last year with 50-odd projects got a footfall of 1,00,000 over eight days. This time it is two-three times the number. Over a thousand artists will be performing at 10 venues in Panjim with the Mandovi river as the backdrop. There will be conclaves, interactive sessions and workshops for children. There is also an attempt to connect with artistes of the sub-continent and some from Afghanistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh will be attending this year itself. “I believe experts from TATE and Met as well as Christie’s and Sotheby’s would be coming too,” says Munjal.
The festival will not remain confined to Goa but bits and pieces of it have been doing the rounds of various cities. Delhi hosted a crafts session in April while the performance arts were staged in Mumbai in September. The crafts showcase travels to Hyderabad in November. “The main fest will be in Goa as it took 5,23,000 man hours to put together a showcase of such a scale,” says he.
Munjal is categorical that young people need to be exposed to arts as we are losing our connect with them. “It is critical to expose the mind as it is at a young age that you develop interest which stays with you for the rest of your life. This is India’s future. When we travel to a city different from our hometown, we do not ask where the new theatre or opera is because none exists. Those that remain are terribly neglected. This quest for our enhanced abilities as creators needs to become our second nature. Art can open your mind, widen your horizon and give a perspective which is more balanced. The young have the ability to absorb more. It is at a young age that you decide what you like,” he says.
All the venues at Serendipity fest are accessible for the physically impaired. “There are sign language experts too. For the visually challenged, we have dockets where you can touch and know what is on offer. Every venue has catalogues and the routes are marked in Braille,” says Munjal, who is passionate about giving Goa a cultural makeover.