Art philanthropy

Although music and poetry were part of my life since childhood in some form or the other it is only for the past 5 years that I have been dabbling with a couple of visual art forms (acrylic/watercolor painting, mixed media art). This self-directed art exploration has opened up a vista of learnings that only an art education can provide.

Art in our 'hustle culture' today is limited to only a small section of society due to a lack of awareness, access, and exposure to the holistic benefits that pursuing art can bring about in one's life. Often the goals of self-development and growth through art are seen as being in conflict or requiring tradeoffs to succeeding in work life. Our society as a whole needs more focus on individuals sustainably maintaining their mental wellbeing through art and culture for them to be productive members of the society (as per their individual standards as well as economically).

The communities that practice traditional indigenous art/familial art forms are left to fend for themselves with overall support from the Indian Ministry of Culture limited to a minuscule 0.07% of overall Indian budget (FY22). With the COVID-19 pandemic bringing in challenges around basic tenets of survival such as health, education, nutrition and housing there is less and less political will to increase art and culture budget.

In such situations, there is an increased need for philanthropy to step into the role of promoting and preserving art for India's society to continue maintaining and enriching its rich history of art. There is not yet a sector-wide study/report that tracks overall philanthropic investment in art and culture since that is clearly not a trend for 'giving' in India. Indian philanthropy for art has been traditionally done through individual wealthy patrons, feature of the sector that rarely promotes population-scale adoption of art.

I want to highlight philanthropic organizations in the art sector that personally appealed to me:

• Devi Art Foundation: undertakes extensive education and outreach programs to bring art debates, discussions to the mainstream. When the greatest burden of millennials and Gen Z is mental health and behavioral disorders, I see art being the sustainable intervention for a healthier society.
• Cona Foundation: creates a 'cona' (Hindi word for corner) of the art district in the outskirts of Mumbai. The curators are mindful of not isolating the experience of 'art' by handing it over to 'artists' only and are structured to welcome cross-pollination of ideas.
• Shalini Passi Art Foundation: facilitates dialogue on 'creativity in modernity' by breaking the hierarchical distinctions between art, architecture, design, fashion etc., When our modern world with the aid of technology (particularly social media) is claiming hitherto reserved opportunities, we need organisations such as these breaking further barriers among different streams of art and to allow for more inflow of talent across sectors.
• Baithak Foundation: takes Indian classical music closer to common people. With traditional art forms being a currency of gaining higher cultural capital in our society, it is crucial to take the classics to those who do not have the privilege (due to their caste, class and bodily abilities) to amble into them without support.

There are other leading philanthropists who have nurtured art in India: Tata Trusts, Shankar Mahadevan Academy, Ravi Shankar Foundation, Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies. Given we have ~128B USD wealth-getting transferred to the next younger generation this decade, we need the young philanthropists who are often touted to be non-traditional funders to fund the art sector which could be the most beneficial investment for a generation affected by the biggest mental health challenges of all times.