Page 23 - 10 Futuristic Women Entrepreneurs in India 2022

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(SM)ART

MOVE

Ritwik Mukherjee
whole idea of creating Emami Art was to institution. We have allowed the institution
support KCC. These are two different enti- to evolve and shape up.
ties with two completely different teams,
different systems. RM: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RM: HOW
CHALLENGING IS IT TO RUN THIS ‘BUSI-
The organisation, as a whole, is focused on NESS OF ART’ (IF I MAY SAY SO?), BEING
a future-forward, complex, multi-dimen- A STUDENT OF COMMERCE AND HAILING
sional approach and steadfast in the advo- FROM A BUSINESS FAMILY? HOW DO YOU
cacy of emerging, mid-career and estab- STRIKE A BALANCE BETWEEN ART AND
Richa Agarwal lished artists as well as an engagement with COMMERCE?
contemporary and historical material. Agarwal: Yes I was a student of commerce
and studied commerce. I also hail from
he is married RM: NORMALLY, CORPORATE PATRONISA- a business family and got married into a
into one of the arts smoothly and he aspirations to propel TION IN ART AND CULTURE COMES BY WAY business family. My family which hails from
most prominent Kolkata as a hub of contemporary art. OF BUYING AND COLLECTION OF PAINT- southern parts of India, was always enthu-
business families EXCERPTS: INGS, SPONSORING CULTURAL EXTRAVA- siastic and passionate about traditional
in Kolkata that GANZA. HOW HAVE EMAMI’S INITIATIVES art forms and so was my in-laws family
that hails from Bikaner, Rajasthan. When
owns one of the RM: WHAT WAS THE PRIME IDEA BEHIND BEEN DIFFERENT?
largest diversified EMAMI ART AND KOLKATA CENTRE FOR Agarwal: As I mentioned earlier, me or my I got married there were assimilations of
conglomerates CREATIVITY? family was never interested in buying or thoughts, ideas, beliefs and culture. My
with interests selling art. We never thought of getting father-in-law, Agarwal ji, always used to
ranging from Agarwal: I was never interested in trading into art trading. We always wanted Emami say that in earlier times, the Rajas and
Maharajas had been the great patrons of
FMCG to health- of art. It was never like that I will have Art, one of the most significant art
care, hospital, to buy this, then I will have to sell this. It institutions in the eastern part of India, art, culture and literature. In the present
realty and what was not just my cup of tea. I was always to be a key space for cultural produc- day context, businessmen and industrialists
not? But her concerns for young Indian interested in promoting art, artists, tion in the region. The gallery aims to will have to come forward and take up that
artists and the desire to do something on promoting art education and simultane- create dynamic, wide-ranging registers role by all means. So, although I studied
commerce, art is not something that was
her own and something creative drove her ously I was keen on understanding and of exhibition-making and viewing. Deeply
to run Emami Art and Kolkata Centre for educating myself about various nuances committed to promoting a regional, new to me- neither at my parental home,
Creativity. Motivated by her effervescent of art. Some 10-11 years ago, I had first national and international agenda through nor at my in-law’s place. IN fact, my two
father-in-law RS Agarwal and his business started a gallery and had got the hang innovative and alternative programming, families aptly inculcated the true spirit of
partner, RS Goenka’s passion for art, Richa of it. For us, art was a much bigger idea emphasis on community and socially rele- ‘business of art’ into me.
Agarwal, a commerce graduate from than just buying and selling. So we started vant engagements, institutional partner-
Coimbatore, is now burning midnight oils to discussing it amongst ourselves (me and ships and more via a multi-year vision for Having said these, I must also add that I
preserve the artistic legacy and heritage my family) and eventually we came up with the future, Emami Art is resolute to be a always wanted to do something on my own,
of Bengal, whilst embracing its modern and the idea of Kolkata Centre for Creativity catalyst of change, research, innovation not just my husband’s routine work. I always
contemporary avatar. Speaking to Ritwik (KCC). KCC was conceived to be and has and inclusivity. Therefore, we are different wanted to do something creative.
Mukherjee exclusively, Richa Agarwal, been a not-for-profit organisation. But in from the rest in more ways than one.
chairperson, Kolkata Centre for Creativity the long-run, you need funds and invest- RM: IN TERMS OF YOUR PRIORITIES, WHO
and CEO, Emami Art, shares her story of ments to run an organisation with such We have also been different in the sense WOULD YOU LIKE TO PROMOTE MORE-
how she was initiated into the business of a large vision on a sustained basis. The that we never looked at ‘my profit’ or MODERN, CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS?-
YOUNG, UPCOMING ARTISTS OR FAMED
‘our profit’. We always looked at it as an

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