With the coming of age of Indian art, a new vocation of art curator has emerged as a career option for artistically inclined youth

With the rapid expansion of post-liberalisation India’s middle class, art galleries and exhibitions are mushrooming across the country, prompting huge and rising demand for works of art (paintings, sculpture, objets d’art). Contemporary Indian art is also gaining ground on the international art scene, with a strong presence in art galleries, art fests and auction houses abroad. The canvases of Indian masters such as Tyeb Mehta, M.F. Husain, F.N. Souza, Akbar Padamsee among others are being valued and traded for record millions at Christie’s and international exhibitions. With the coming of age of Indian art, a new vocation of art curator has emerged as a career option for artistically inclined youth.

Contemporary works of art and their creators aren’t easily understood by the general public and require interpretation. Usually, this duty is discharged by the curator who describes the artist and his work, to aid and enhance its appreciation. In sum, the curator’s vocation is to interpret, evaluate, select and present the works of promising artists.

Curators tend to be highly educated with undergrad degrees in the liberal arts and Ph Ds in subjects such as history, art history, archaeology, or the classics. The ideal qualification is a Masters in art history which is offered by several institutions. Of them, the Royal College of Art, London has a global reputation. Back home in India, several curatorial courses are offered by museums and colleges.

Although art curating as a career is still nascent, opportunities for employment are multiplying. As a curator, one could start as a staff member at a museum in a specialised department, at an art gallery which offers opportunity to become involved in every exhibition or work as an independent curator, which would involve staging exhibitions in galleries and museums. Freelance art curators have to devise specific themes, persuade artists to exhibit, prepare promotional material and negotiate artists’ contracts and payments to galleries.

For a curator working full-time in a gallery or museum, the remuneration structure varies and could range from Rs.15,000-40,000 per month. Although not assured of monthly pay cheques, freelance curators however, could average Rs.100,000 per month depending on their network of contacts within the community of creative artists, gallery owners and art critics.

“Art curating has a young history in India but the demand for curating services is definitely on the rise. Every gallery has a curator and the number of curated exhibitions is several multiples of shows a decade ago. This is a profession still in its development stages,” says Mumbai-based curator Veerangana Solanki, who has quickly established a reputation for curating contemporary art exhibitions.

An English literature graduate of Mumbai’s premier St. Xavier’s College with a diploma in Indian aesthetics from Mumbai University (2007) and a Masters in art history from SNDT University (2009), Solanki also completed the first Gwangju (Korea) Biennale international curators course in 2009. “It’s a great study programme which offers excellent experiential education. Though only of a month’s duration, it’s very intensive and offers critical insights based on interaction with artists, administrators and the media on a day-to-day basis,” she recalls. On her return from Korea, Solanki began her career with the Bodhi Art Gallery, Mumbai where she worked for a year before starting to curate independently from 2010.

Within the short span since she went solo, Solanki has impacted the world of arts and artists countrywide. In 2011, she was awarded the first Iily Sustain Art Curator’s Prize followed by the 1st annual ALICE (Artistic Landmark in Contemporary Experience) Public Voice Award 2012 for best emerging curator. Among the art exhibitions she curated abroad, she cherishes the Dhaka Art Summit to which the response was “fantastic”. “It’s unfortunate that while the quality and quantity of art produced in India has risen in global esteem, the development of ancillary institutions like museums and art colleges has not kept pace. An important responsibility of curators and connoisseurs of art is to educate government and the public about the importance of enriching and preserving our artistic heritage. To this end, the expansion of the community of professional curators is in the national interest,” says Solanki.

Indra Gidwani