Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata

The Academy of Fine Arts, in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) is one of the oldest fine arts societies in India. The galleries of the Academy provide a whopping 6,300 square feet of space and has an auditorium, a conference centre, and several important and priceless collections of paintings, textiles, etc.



History
The academy was formally established in 1933 by Lady Ranu Mukherjee. It was initially located in a room loaned by the Indian Museum, and the annual exhibitions used to take place in the adjoining verandah.

In the 1950s, thanks to the efforts of Lady Ranu Mookerjee and patronage by Bidhan Chandra Roy, Chief Minister of West Bengal, as well as Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India, the academy was shifted to a much larger space in the Cathedral Road. The Academy is situated at the heart of the city guarded by the St. Paul's Cathedral on one side, and the Rabindra Sadan-Nandan-Sisir Mancha complex, on the other. At present, Prasun Mukherjee is the chairman of board of trustees and Kallol Bose is the Jt. secretary of the executive committee.

Collections
The Academy boasts an eclectic mix of prized collections of various paintings and textiles from the Bengal School, majorly gifted by Lady Ranu Mukherjee. There are some famous paintings here like Saat Bhai Champa by Gaganendranath Tagore, Shiva with Ganesh by Jamini Roy. Textiles include Baluchari, Jamdani garments, exotic carpets of the Orient, etc. Rabindranath Tagore's manuscripts of Bhanusingher Padabali find a special place. Artworks of the Tagores: Rabindranath, Abanindranath and Gaganendranath besides those of Sunayani Devi, Atul Bose, Nandalal Bose, Ramkinkar Baij and Benode Behari Mukherjee are also there. The Academy also hosts very early works of Jamini Roy, and Jogen Chowdhury.

Theatre Auditorium
There is a theatre auditorium in Academy of Fine Arts which is one of the most popular spots for performers and viewers of the city. Since 1984, an annual theatre festival is organised here. Shambhu Mitra's theatre group, Bohurupee, always scheduled its shows in the Academy's theatre. The Nandikar and Nandimukh International theatre festival is still organised at the venue. Productions have been staged by notable theatre personalities including Utpal Dutt, Shaoli Mitra, Soumitra Chatterjee, Manoj Mitra, and others. The Academy had evolved as the city's centre for public art and culture after 1961, when its status changed from a society to an institution, and the popularity of its Auditorium soared with the group theatre movement in the city.

Present Status
The Academy which was once a coveted destination for new-age artists and theatre performers who came in the wake of the Independence, defining new styles, forms, genres, and creative sensibility, has dwindled in status. It is definitely a tragedy that the platinum jubilee of the Academy's foundation in 2008 went unnoticed and without any celebration. Today it has largely become a space for amateur artists who cannot make otherwise clear the cut in the city's more gorgeous, and global galleries, to showcase and exhibit their works. According to Tapati Guha Thakurta, a leading historian, and scholar, particularly of the Bengal School and its evolution, notes how the Academy after its humble beginnings, and during the able trusteeship of Lady Ranu was the "nerve centre" of the city, and a space for "public art culture". However, she laments it only "somehow exists today", and has been certainly dispossessed in terms of its appeal, popularity, and prestige. The opening up of new galleries in the city, with their more market-oriented approach overshadowed the once famous destination, and the Academy failed to keep up with the transformations in the field of art as Guha Thakurta points out. Pranab Ranjan Ray, a prominent face in Calcutta's art circles agrees with these observations. He mentions how at the height of its glory the Academy's theatre auditorium housed plays by Shambhu Mitra, Utpal Dutt, Shaoli Mitra, and others. The emergence of new gallery spaces, like the Centre for International Modern Art (CIMA), with a fresh ambiance that caters to new generations, and serves the interests of the wealthier, global clientele, and an organised market of buyers, artists, and curators, has disadvantaged the Academy that was known for its accessibility by multiple and wider audiences. Thus, ignored and fallen out of favour, the Academy has to negotiate through serious cash-straps to maintain its functioning. What the new galleries lack, however, are the art collections, which are priceless and wide-ranging, and had been gifted by Lady Ranu. This gives an edge to the Academy, however, these collections are kept locked, and away from public view which impoverishes the city's history and the splendour of the Academy. It is the theatre's presence that still maintains the vestiges of the Academy's past aura as the present Chairman of the Board, Prasun Mukherjee asserts. Moreover. there were rumours that significant portions of the collection had disappeared from the prized collections due to the lackadaisical approach of the present trustees which had forced them to reopen the collection, and exhibit it post-proper authentication and curation. The Academy's financial condition too has drastically deteriorated. It barely manages to clear the wages of its staff, and requires major investments to overhaul the institution, concerted efforts to save its legacy, art collections, and its creative space, and reinvent itself as being contemporaneous and relevant before it completes its centenary in 2023.