The Full Story
In a city where creativity thrives but cultural infrastructure often struggles, conversations about sustainability are no longer optional. In this first-edition exclusive, V Ravichandar reflects on power, patronage, philanthropy, and the structural shifts Bengaluru must embrace to build a resilient arts ecosystem. This is not merely a conversation about funding, it is about the cultural future we are collectively shaping.
Q1
Where does the real decision-making power lie in the city’s cultural ecosystem?
Policy thinker and long-time arts enabler V Ravichandar has played a catalytic role in shaping conversations around Bengaluru’s civic and cultural infrastructure
A: The truth is everyone in the sector is struggling at some level. It’s not really a power game between spaces and artists, as both are stakeholders facing different pressures. For cultural spaces, sustainability is the biggest challenge. Month to month, they’re trying to ensure rental income exceeds operating costs. That’s not easy. For artists, the challenge is chronic underpayment. They are definitely underpaid for what they bring to the table. But that’s the nature of this sector. Unlike flourishing consumer industries, arts and culture have historically depended on patronage.
Earlier it was the Maharajas and Maharanis; today, the responsibility lies with the privileged and the well-to-do. There is support coming in, but it’s inadequate. And to be fair, donors are confronted with enormous competing priorities with pressing issues such as poverty, education, healthcare, livelihoods, and climate change. Arts and culture inevitably fall lower in that hierarchy.
Q: Would a USA/UK Arts Council model be the way forward to reshape Bengaluru’s cultural landscape?
Q2
A: Yes, in principle, an Arts Council model would absolutely help streamline the ecosystem. If you look at international examples such as the Arts Council England or the British Council, they are backed by government support. Their stability comes from state funding. So the question in India becomes: who plays that role? Either the government must step up meaningfully, or a group of philanthropists must substitute for that role.Right now, what happens instead? Individual artists struggle. If you’re putting up a play, you spend more time chasing sponsors than conceiving or directing the production.
The administrative effort can exceed the creative effort. That’s the reality. Government grants exist, yes. But the process is often time-consuming, bureaucratic, and uncertain. You apply and wait. Sometimes there’s no clarity on outcomes. Sometimes the process feels opaque. For an independent artist or arts manager, the time and energy required can be discouraging. Which is why a well-structured Arts Council model could change things. It could professionalise grant-making, create transparency, commission work systematically, and reduce the transactional burden on artists.
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Q3
If you were to design Bengaluru’s cultural ecosystem for the next decade, what structural shifts would you implement?
A: I hesitate to use the word “structural”, because that assumes there is one master architect who can redesign the whole system. That’s not how ecosystems work.
Now, to be fair, we do have partial substitutes. Institutions like India Foundation for the Arts raise funds from philanthropists and distribute grants. Festivals such as the Kochi-Muziris Biennale or the Serendipity Arts Festival commission work.
So elements of an Arts Council already exist, but they are fragmented. What Bengaluru would need is a consolidated, city-focused platform supported either by government or a consortium of philanthropists that provides consistent funding, commissions work, activates public spaces, and builds long-term cultural infrastructure.
Ideally, in most countries, the government is a significant player in arts and culture. In our case, the government has a culture department, yes, but it is not a decisive force. One possibility is a hybrid model where the private sector becomes the face and operational driver, while the government provides backbone support and legitimacy.
Second, we need a far greater participation from high-net-worth individuals and foundations. Support today tends to be project-specific and limited. What we need is sustained, strategic backing at scale.
Third, we need something akin to an Arts Council, a body that represents stakeholders across the ecosystem. No single intervention will solve everything. But collaborative public-private frameworks, stronger philanthropic commitment, and an institutional mechanism like an Arts Council together could be a powerful structural shift.
In Focus
1. One uncomfortable truth about our ecosystem?
We are still elitist in nature.
2. One cultural habit we must unlearn?
We need to be less Anglicised and more Indic towards arts and culture.
3. One funding myth?
That there is no money in the arts. It exists, we have to unlock it.
4. A myth about our arts ecosystem?
There aren’t enough opportunities.
4. One invisible barrier artists face?
A lack of acceptance on a larger scale.
5. One neighbourhood that should be a cultural hub?
Bengaluru central, which already has a cluster of art and culture institutions.
6. A neighbourhood that deserves more art?
Whitefield
7. A system that should exist but doesn’t?
We need to make our public spaces come alive with arts and cultural activities.
