Artists cry foul at city art academy’s brush with chaos

Established in 1954 to promote art, Lalit Kala Akademi is often associated by artists with memories of grand exhibitions and hours spent in the library, sifting through chronicles on art.

Established in 1954 to promote art, Lalit Kala Akademi is often associated by artists with memories of grand exhibitions and hours spent in the library, sifting through chronicles on art. But voices of distrust are echoing now, with several artists questioning the way of its functioning in the absence of a general council and executive board, both dissolved at the end of their five-year term in December 2007.

“There is no transparency in its working. High-ranking officials take decisions on their own, as there is no general council or executive,” says artist K R Subbanna, elected as member of the general council by artists this January.

While the state akademis and governments have nominated representatives in the general council, the Department of Culture is required to select 10 candidates as members of the body from a list of 30 already submitted by selected members of the general council. This will be followed by selection of eminent artists, who will be part of the council.

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Subbanna says the list of 30 recommended names was sent to the Culture ministry in June but the department has not yet responded. “The formation of the general council and executive board should ideally not take more than four months but the procedure seems to be taking almost a year.”

Ashok Vajpeyi, appointed the Akademi’s chairman in April, calls it procedural delay. “The artists need to be patient,” he says. “The list is with the ministry and a meeting will be called and rest of the members selected as soon as we get a response. The executive board will be formed after that.”

He says the Akademi’s constitution “allows me to take decisions, which will be put for approval before the general council and the executive once it is complete”.

But artists claim the problems date back to the time before Vajpeyi took over as chairman. Artist M K Puri, a member of the executive board in its last session, says, “The constitution requires every decision to be taken in a democratic manner but over the years the Akademi has become a bureaucratic institution. For instance, as executive board members we had only passed a proposal for renovation of galleries in Rabindra Bhawan but the management is revamping the administrative block as well.”

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A select group of artists had sent a letter to Tourism and Culture minister Ambika Soni in October 2007, highlighting “irregularities in working of the Akademi”. But, “we haven’t received any response yet,” says artist Mukul Panwar, one of the signatories.

In 1990, artists like Manjit Bawa and G R Santosh had reportedly written a letter to then Prime Minister V P Singh regarding misuse of funds and irregularities concerning appointment of officials at several posts.

In 2005, another set of artists had written to Union Urban Development minister Jaipal Reddy, asking him to set up an independent committee to investigate functioning of the Akademi.

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