Dolcy D’Cruz [email protected]
After completing a masterpiece, the main question is where does an artist find the right viewing space? With art spaces shrinking in the bustling city of Panjim, a place known for the country’s largest visual arts festival, artists have to think twice before working on an exhibition. With Kala Academy art gallery in Panjim yet to be fully functional, these past five years have been a real struggle for the art community.
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Finding your way with art
Illustrator, urban sketcher and caricaturist, Vaibhav Salgaonkar was searching the right venue to display his works when he was starting out in the art world. However, he got the much needed break at Matienchem Fest in Pilerne, where his artworks sold like hot cakes, instantly bringing him into the limelight. “Interestingly, now those same people who once stood me up, follow and like my posts on Instagram. Matiechem Fest was my first break and I could show my artwork to some many people,” says Vaibhav, who also feels that pop-up markets that have helped artists to showcase their works.
Exploring different galleries beyond Panjim
Jodan Inacio De Souza is an MFA student of Goa College of Art, Panjim, who loves working with acrylic on canvas. It gives him the ability to express daily life interactions through portraits and human emotions in a better way. He has participated in three group exhibitions since 2022, at Carpe Diem, Majorda, Sunaparanta, Panjim and Art Chamber, Calangute. However, he is looking forward to having his own solo exhibition in the future.
“I would definitely want a place like Kala Academy because people come for different things rather than just art. There is more interaction between artist and the public. Artists are finding it difficult to find space and some have started exhibiting their works in houses. I recently visited an exhibition in an old Portuguese house, which was converted into a cafe as well as an exhibition space. It’s not officially a gallery, but they are trying to find places and it also depends on how you attract the right crowd. Carpe Diem was a good experience as I sold my first painting there,” says Jodan.
Finding the right audience
Daegal Godinho of Carpe Diem, Majorda has been creating a bond with his patrons over the years. His team usually notifies art lovers over social media or through mailing lists about upcoming exhibitions as well as workshops. “Artists from all over the world are free to approach the gallery for exhibition space with the required information that helps us decide whether to rent out the gallery. We also curate solo or group shows with certain artists that works with the target audience. We have realised that people don’t mind travelling for art as we often see art lovers from Bardez even coming to the gallery,” says Daegal, who recently organised an artist acquaintance programme.
Affordability for upcoming artists
Wilfred Goes, principal of Goa College of Art, Altinho, Panjim, has been encouraging students to push their creative limits. However, when it comes to space to showcase their talent, he feels there is more space required. “The students still do group shows but now they have them at the Art and Culture gallery at Patto, Panjim. The students publicise about their exhibition in their own way on social media. We receive their invites and posters which we display in the college. Kala Academy is the ideal place as it is a better for walk-ins, as Art and Culture gallery is a little out of the way. The ambience in Kala Academy was and is still better. The open spaces, the canteen, makes you feel nice when you enter the place. In Kala Academy, the exhibiting artists used to have children, parents or tiatr viewers continuously walking in. Other than the Central Library visitors, nobody else visits the art gallery at Patto. Kala Academy was established and is already fixed into the minds of many art lovers and artists as a place for art. There are private art galleries, which are for students a little beyond their affordability.”
Removing art from politics
Artist Subodh Kerkar, is the founder of the art gallery Museum of Goa in Pilerne, which evolves along with Goan art. “A museum has to be dynamic so we keep adding new works from different artists of Goa all the time. We are very much aware of who is our audience. We follow a curatorial policy, which I have named Tukaram policy or Kabir policy that our art should connect and communicate with everybody.”
Why is there is no space for art in Panjim right now? “If you have a heart problem, you will go to a cardiologist, not to the secretary of health. But today the decision for what work of art should be displayed is taken by bureaucrats and politicians and not by a curator. I have studied cardiology and curation and I can say that curation is as difficult as cardiology. There is a lot of scope for doing public art. The job of promotion of art in Goa should be handled professionally by qualified curators and not by politicians and bureaucrats,” says Subodh.
Citing an example of how to attract more art lovers to a centre, Subodh explains, “Museum of Goa has a space which gets 300 people every day. Goa State Museum, which has the best of building, the Old Secretariat, does not even get a fly every day and why this is happening? That is because those who are looking after that museum are not qualified to look after it. They should take more professional help.”
