Saturday, December 10, 2005
The eBay Song
Monday, December 05, 2005
Action Items (de Young...)
I knew someone will ask - what are your action items for improving the visibility of Indian culture and heritage, after I posted my concern in the last post. (aka - talk is cheap, complaining is cheaper, do you have any idea how this can be done?)
Well, you realize that such a task is not a one-man task and cannot be done overnite. It is collective. And there are 4 fundamental ways to get things done from stakeholders, when tasks are collective - Saam (explain the benefits), Daam (dangle a carrot), Dand (fear) and Bhed (blackmailing). In noble tasks such as this one, you really don't have the last two options. You have to do a mix of Saam and Daam.
In other words, you need to make sure that all stakeholders understand the importance of the task and that they get something out of it, to keep them interested. Who are the major stakeholders in this work of culture preservation? They are - 1) The originators or art 2) Govt. 3) Academia (students and teachers of art) & 4) Spectators.
First action-item would be hence to explain the importance and benefits of preservation to all of them - pretty much simultaneously. Create awareness, slowly and steadily. Show them what happened to our ancient civilizations because they were not preserved with scientific detail. Explain to them that there is meaning to such things in life outside of earning money. Make them realize how rich we are in our values and traditions and how a collection can go a long way in perpetuating such values in our children and generations to come.
Second action item is to allocate monetary and semi-voluntary resources. There are many people in India who would be willing to give a lot if you immortalize their names as big donors to activites like this. Money can also come from India's biggest export - NRIs spread all over the world.
Third and the most important item would be to plan incentives for folks to donate precious old, household items. When people have their own stuff displayed and applauded, they will start getting more involved. Organic growth can result if this is executed correctly.
Fourth would be to involve academia. They are the only group of people who do not need to be explained why Art is beneficial to society. Academia also enjoys a socialist soft-corner in India. They can actually take the lead in educating and planning these works. They need to exhault the profession of an artist in a society, encourage more kids to get into it, institute and revise the syllabi to balance the emphasis between science and art and actually initiate the spread of the word around the world.
Fifth would be for the Govt to stay out of all this - just be a cheerleader from the sidelines, keep blowing the trumpet and not try to play the game - let, for once, your people take it over from the heart and mind.
Everything is easier said than done. After having philosophized all this, I know I myself am just going to bed and maybe I will also forget about it by tomorrow morning. Most of you will too. That is the easiest action-item and hence is the most humanly possible. I atleast hope I've had some of you thinking a bit more than what you might have done otherwise. And if any of you do get a chance to take on this task in the future, drop me a line - maybe I will join you in the journey.
Well, you realize that such a task is not a one-man task and cannot be done overnite. It is collective. And there are 4 fundamental ways to get things done from stakeholders, when tasks are collective - Saam (explain the benefits), Daam (dangle a carrot), Dand (fear) and Bhed (blackmailing). In noble tasks such as this one, you really don't have the last two options. You have to do a mix of Saam and Daam.
In other words, you need to make sure that all stakeholders understand the importance of the task and that they get something out of it, to keep them interested. Who are the major stakeholders in this work of culture preservation? They are - 1) The originators or art 2) Govt. 3) Academia (students and teachers of art) & 4) Spectators.
First action-item would be hence to explain the importance and benefits of preservation to all of them - pretty much simultaneously. Create awareness, slowly and steadily. Show them what happened to our ancient civilizations because they were not preserved with scientific detail. Explain to them that there is meaning to such things in life outside of earning money. Make them realize how rich we are in our values and traditions and how a collection can go a long way in perpetuating such values in our children and generations to come.
Second action item is to allocate monetary and semi-voluntary resources. There are many people in India who would be willing to give a lot if you immortalize their names as big donors to activites like this. Money can also come from India's biggest export - NRIs spread all over the world.
Third and the most important item would be to plan incentives for folks to donate precious old, household items. When people have their own stuff displayed and applauded, they will start getting more involved. Organic growth can result if this is executed correctly.
Fourth would be to involve academia. They are the only group of people who do not need to be explained why Art is beneficial to society. Academia also enjoys a socialist soft-corner in India. They can actually take the lead in educating and planning these works. They need to exhault the profession of an artist in a society, encourage more kids to get into it, institute and revise the syllabi to balance the emphasis between science and art and actually initiate the spread of the word around the world.
Fifth would be for the Govt to stay out of all this - just be a cheerleader from the sidelines, keep blowing the trumpet and not try to play the game - let, for once, your people take it over from the heart and mind.
Everything is easier said than done. After having philosophized all this, I know I myself am just going to bed and maybe I will also forget about it by tomorrow morning. Most of you will too. That is the easiest action-item and hence is the most humanly possible. I atleast hope I've had some of you thinking a bit more than what you might have done otherwise. And if any of you do get a chance to take on this task in the future, drop me a line - maybe I will join you in the journey.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
de Young musuem
And so we went to see this new art gallery boasted by San Fran today. I came out with mixed feelings about the place.
The gallery strikes as an incredible effort to preserve and publish the contemporary and older art works of US and the world. It is hard to come away without appreciating the effort and care of the people who have worked to collect and cherish the paintings and other art work. It should be noted that most work is from outside the US (Africa, Oceania, Latin America), which actually is commendable on the part of US, but maybe represents only a fraction of the culture all these places have.
On the sad hand, to my Indian soul, it also seems like the depth conveyed by the US collections is exxagerated and hyped. I have witnessed deeper meanings and values in the handiwork,artwork,paintings found in a typical Rajasthani or Gujarati house. So many houses including mine still have those old copper and silver vessels and trunks used daily by our grandparents, which have richer engravings and brighter shines than those found in such museums under artificial light. Every house has its own story, its own generations worth of buried yet beautiful history, that is worth much more than a museum.
I walked out appreciative of the fact that US Govt and its people do provide the recognition such artwork deserves. At the same time I felt bad that we havn't done anything much in India towards this end for our civilization, that is 10 times as old as US.
This is a great time to initiate such an effort, especially since we still have some of those people around who have witnessed the pre-independence to post-independence transition of India. (And also because we have a lot of money flowing into the country these days.) If we don't do it, somebody else (read US) will, and then probably the whole of Indian art and architecture will get folded into a limited few shelves under neon lights...
The gallery strikes as an incredible effort to preserve and publish the contemporary and older art works of US and the world. It is hard to come away without appreciating the effort and care of the people who have worked to collect and cherish the paintings and other art work. It should be noted that most work is from outside the US (Africa, Oceania, Latin America), which actually is commendable on the part of US, but maybe represents only a fraction of the culture all these places have.
On the sad hand, to my Indian soul, it also seems like the depth conveyed by the US collections is exxagerated and hyped. I have witnessed deeper meanings and values in the handiwork,artwork,paintings found in a typical Rajasthani or Gujarati house. So many houses including mine still have those old copper and silver vessels and trunks used daily by our grandparents, which have richer engravings and brighter shines than those found in such museums under artificial light. Every house has its own story, its own generations worth of buried yet beautiful history, that is worth much more than a museum.
I walked out appreciative of the fact that US Govt and its people do provide the recognition such artwork deserves. At the same time I felt bad that we havn't done anything much in India towards this end for our civilization, that is 10 times as old as US.
This is a great time to initiate such an effort, especially since we still have some of those people around who have witnessed the pre-independence to post-independence transition of India. (And also because we have a lot of money flowing into the country these days.) If we don't do it, somebody else (read US) will, and then probably the whole of Indian art and architecture will get folded into a limited few shelves under neon lights...
