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A new cultural centre to come up in the capital

The Serendipity Arts Foundation announces plans to launch a Live Museum to support interactions between practitioners and the audience in an immersive environment

An installation by Dharti Arts Residency's artist, Farah Viraf Mulla, at the Serendipity Arts Festival 2019
An installation by Dharti Arts Residency's artist, Farah Viraf Mulla, at the Serendipity Arts Festival 2019

Serendipity Arts Foundation, which helms the annual arts festival, is now embarking on a new project. There are plans to launch a Live Museum—a cultural centre—which will foster the learnings from the past years of taking art out of the white cube space into different public arenas. The idea is to support interactions between the practitioners and the audience in an immersive environment.

Unlike a traditional museum, it won’t just house objects, but also become a space for artistic processes, experimentation and a renewed engagement with history. According to Sunil Kant Munjal, founder patron, Serendipity Arts Foundation, the ‘Live Museum’, to open in Delhi-NCR in the next couple of years, is a working title for the centre, and this name might evolve as one goes along. “It will assimilate different physical facets of the arts ecosystem, and the museum would constitute just one part of this assimilation,” he says. “The centre will also house knowledge spaces, research academies and creative areas, which will have the mandate to explore the past and discover the future.”

Also read: A new space for contemporary art and design in Shillong

Sunil Kant Munjal, founder patron, Serendipity Arts Foundation
Sunil Kant Munjal, founder patron, Serendipity Arts Foundation

The programming will be led by education and experimentation, with focus on research, practical learning, archiving, publishing, mentorship, residencies, black box and performances, culinary experiences and experiential projects. The vision is to promote the region’s diverse artistic and creative expressions, and hopes to go beyond the vision of the Serendipity Arts Foundation and festival. The centre seeks to represent a quasi-informal university that supports the arts ecosystem, while finding ways for creating sustainable practices for the arts from all genres.

“It will be a platform for harnessing India’s soft power; we would like it to emerge as a hub for diverse cultural activities, experimentation and a space for innovative thinking and entrepreneurship,” says Munjal. “Interdisciplinarity between various art forms is what sets our Foundation and Festival apart; so interdisciplinarity will be visible in every aspect of the centre, right from the façade to the different treatments.” The outreach formats will be interactive and immersive so that the exchange of ideas and the flow of dialogue remain constant. The centre will be no different; in fact, the aim is to enhance idea exchange and knowledge sharing. “The centre will provide the space to deepen and strengthen these initiatives through informal and formal academy structures such as study centres, auditoriums, and open-air theatres,” he adds.

Also read: The Delhi Contemporary Art Week showcases a new wave of artists

There will be a cluster-approach to programming. At the same time, Munjal maintains that the programming will be broader, deeper, more intense and much more consistent. “The centre will give us the opportunity to collaborate, partner and re-imagine our outlook and curation, so that programming can continue year-round,” he says.

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