Museums 2021: Cultural Meaning and Digitizing Legacy

Paul Abraham is an art patron and collector of historical artefacts, modern and contemporary art and living traditions from the Indian subcontinent. He founded Sarmaya in 2015 to foster a love for art and history among the young and the curious. Sarmaya is a modern, digital museum that uses a combination of online engagement and on-ground programming, including workshops, lectures and travels, to reach everyone from children to young adults, and from enthusiasts to connoisseurs. Paul works closely with Indian artists to encourage innovation in indigenous art-forms like Mata-Ni-Pachedi, Tholu Bommalata, Mithila and Bengal Patua. Paul has a Post Graduate Degree in Business Management from IIM Ahmedabad and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics (Hons) from St Stephen’s College Delhi. A banker with over 35 years of experience, Paul is an advisor at IndusInd Bank. In addition, he is President, Hinduja Foundation and on the board of Dakshinachitra Museum and Sanctuary Asia.

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur is an award-winning filmmaker, producer and film archivist. He is the founder Director of Film Heritage Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of India’s film heritage. Shivendra was elected to the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) for a second term in 2019. Under the banner of Dungarpur Films he has directed and produced close to 1000 commercials. He made his first feature documentary “Celluloid Man” in 2012 that won two National Awards and travelled to over fifty festivals around the world. His second documentary “The Immortals” (2015) premiered at the Busan International Film Festival and won the Special Jury Award for the Best Film at MIFF 2016. His third documentary titled “CzechMate – In Search of Jiri Menzel” is a seven-hour epic that is an in-depth exploration of the Czechoslovakian New Wave that has won critical acclaim from cinephiles around the world. British Film Institute and Sight & Sound Magazine voted the film amongst the top 5 releases of 2020.

Sanjoy K. Roy, an entrepreneur of the arts, is Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, which produces over 25 highly acclaimed performing arts, visual arts and literary festivals in multiple cities across the globe, including the world’s largest free literary gathering — the iconic annual Jaipur Literature Festival. Roy is a founder-trustee of Salaam Baalak Trust working to provide services for and rehabilitate street and working children in Delhi. Roy works closely with various industry bodies on policy issues within the cultural space in India and is Co-chair of the Art and Culture Committee of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Member of the CII Delhi Tourism Committee & Advisor to the NCPA, Mumbai. He lectures in various universities across the world and advises local governments on cultural policies.

Divya Thakur is a virtual powerhouse of design thinking and practice, with over 25 years of experience in the design industry. She’s the founder of Design Temple - a luxury home accessories brand. And MoDE- Museum of Design Excellence, a digital museum which she has recently founded in collaboration with Google Arts and Culture.Even with a global exposure to various traditions across continents, Divya’s approach to life and work is rooted in the spiritual and cultural ethos of India. Her ability to take complex ideas from Indian philosophy and living, and distill them into exquisite and comprehensible forms and spaces is the hallmark of her work, and what makes her globally relevant as a designer and an aesthete. Thakur’s long standing approach to design allows her to move effortlessly between mediums. Her work spans from curation to product design, graphics, film titles and spaces.

Aparna Andhare is the Deputy Editor, Live History India, looking after programming for LHI Circle. She was, until recently, a curator at the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, the City Palace, Jaipur. Joining the Museum in 2017, she worked on developing a new gallery on transport, contributed to publications, had collection responsibilities, and handled outreach activities including social media. Specialising in art and architecture of early modern India, she has two master's degrees: Art in the Global Middle Ages (University of Edinburgh, 2017), and Arts and Aesthetics (Master's, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 2012). In Bombay, she has worked on independent archiving projects, and taught and co-ordinated the Art Design History and Theory programme for the undergraduates at ISDI-Parson's Mumbai (2013-16). Aparna contributes to various publications on art and culture.