Kiran Nadar is the Chairperson of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art and a Trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation. She is a patron of modern and trendy Indian art and gave India its first philanthropic private art museum in 2010 the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA). Her continuously expanding, diverse art hodgepodge today comprises thousands of artworks representative of all major phases of modern and trendy Indian art, showcased at the two KNMA spaces in Delhi NCR with a combined exhibit zone of over 50,000 sq. ft. Kiran has not only established KNMA as an exhibition platform for new art forms, ensuring art’s serviceability to people but under her guidance KNMA moreover drives dynamic outreach programs to nurture a museum-going culture among Indian youth.
Nikhil Sardana: India today is the fifth-largest economy in the world. As per the India Philanthropy Report 2022 by Bain & Company,Corporate social responsibility (CSR), family philanthropy (ultrahigh-net-worth individuals [UHNIs] and HNIs), and retail giving cumulatively contribute well-nigh 84% of the total private philanthropic wanted in India. Family philanthropy is expected to grow at a robust 13% per year until FY 2026. You and your husband, ShivNadar, are amongst the top philanthropists in India. When did you start your philanthropic endeavours? How can philanthropy be encouraged sustainably?
KiranNadar:In the early 1990s, my mother-in-law asked my husband what he thought his responsibilities were and shouldnt he requite when to society what he was getting. I think that hit a nerve. In 1996, he started the Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar (SSN) College of Engineering in Chennai which today is a University. That is how our philanthropic endeavours started.
Our philanthropic interests are focused on education at all levels. This applies to art as well. What we are giving to the museum is an endowment. These works will remain with the museum in perpetuity.
It is not an easy task to encourage philanthropy. It must come from your own beliefs. There are people doing good work in my peer group but perhaps it is not stuff encouraged to the extent that it should.
NS: In the lead up to the India Art Fair in May 2022, you visited every small gallery in Delhi and purchased at least one work of art. Why was it important for you to do so?
KN: The unshortened art market has been through such a rough time. I just felt that I must do my bit to help. I did buy from scrutinizingly every gallery that I visited. It was something I enjoyed doing for the sake of art.
The 2022 edition of the India Art Fair had a lot to offer. When I went in to various galleries and enquired well-nigh the works on display, I found it very encouraging to discover that they were once sold to young collectors and plane first-time buyers.
NS:You are in the process of towers a museum and cultural centre opposite Aerocity in Delhi. Would this be an extension of the KNMA? What are your future ambitions for this space?
KN: KNMA needs a new standalone space. Today we have well-nigh eight and a half thousand artworks and would like to be worldly-wise to showcase a lot increasingly than we are with our present infrastructure. We are towers over a million-square-foot cultural centre and museum together. Getting footfalls into a museum is challenging. With a cultural centre and art space, they will support each other.
The yearing of the space is to expand our reach for both art and culture. It will be a state-of-the-art building. We are taking inputs regularly from our architects and consultants. We will have two auditoriums, institute spaces, a library, a caf and a restaurant. The museum itself will have six galleries with an archway over 40,000 sq. ft.
NS:How do we encourage young Indians to engage with museums?
KN:Look at history itself the heritage that India has and how much we have unsalaried to art in all the generations. We have had it for centuries. Increasingly can certainly be washed-up to expand upon this. The KNMA is working on several outreach programs for kids and young adults. It would be interesting if we can inspire children to bring their parents to come and see works of art. Normally it is the parents that take the children, but it would be encouraging to see if the reverse happens.
NS:What do you enjoy listening to in your spare time?
KN:I enjoying listening to Hindustani classical music. I enjoy mucosa music as well. A few years without Shiv and I were married, we used to go to the Shankarlal Music Festival. I remember one night waking up my husband at 4AM considering we wanted to go and hear Ali Akbar when he was playing with Zakir. We used to enjoy going for various music festivals. Over time, other things started to take precedence. If there are interesting music programs, then I like to attend.
