Understanding the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival

Pallavi Sahney Sharma - Chief Executive Kala Ghoda Association and Committee Member, Kala Ghoda Art Festival

What is the role of arts festivals in a community? What role is your festival currently playing in the community and how do you see its significance growing?
The Kala Ghoda Festival was started to get people aware about the Kala Ghoda precinct – the festival acted as a fundraiser for the restoration of the area and to generate public interest in the area. Over the years it has evolved into a festival that aims to make people more sensitive to the arts, get more and more people interested and involved every year. With Mumbai being the financial centre of the country, I believe that a whole generation of her people has missed out on the arts. Delhi, I think has much more exposure to the arts and culture – the festival hopes to bring the same exposure to Mumbai.

The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, which was also one of the first of its kind in the country, has inspired many others to start such initiatives. The success of Kala Ghoda has created a demand for festivals – and we don’t see this as competition but a positive step towards reaching out to the people.

In what historical context does your festival operate? Religious festivals have long been used to build cohesive communities in india - what about arts festivals? Were there historical equivalents of arts festivals in the region?
I am aware of the Khajurao Festival and the Konarak Festival, but both were government initiatives, not private. The Kala Ghoda Festival aims at getting people to come and see a varied performances. It also tries to have a focus each year on certain key issues for the city, be it conservation or issues such as protecting our environment or spreading the message of communal harmony.

Why do you think there is now a sudden spurt of activity in art festival-making in India? How important are such events in a developing/transforming/globalising society?
Culture has over decades played a very important role in shaping various civilizations.India is now emerging as a very strong global market – and culture is playing an important role, which is why the festivals like the Jaipur Literature Festival and the Indian Art Summit are doing so well.

Where do arts festivals fit within the larger cultural framework of India - how are they different from other arts organisations and what unique opportunities do they offer?
India has a very rich and diverse culture but still a lot of people aren’t exposed to it. Festivals such as Kala Ghoda give people the opportunity to witness varied art forms, both within India as well as internationally. The festival programmes and caters to all tastes and ages something for everybody – a mix of everything at one time. The same could be achieved by any other organization. After the success of KGAF, various institutions in the area have opened their doors to the festival and serve as added venue spaces to hold programmes and also attract people to visit these institutions even when the festival is not there.

Do you think arts festivals are more accessible to their audiences, than other fixed arts organisations? Why?
As the festival has grown the popularity has increased with has lead to an increase in the number. Most people don’t come to the festival for a particular act or artist, they come for the festive atmosphere, to just hang out. The festival is free, and happens annually – so people look forward to it. It becomes part of their cultural calendar. I agree that festivals tend to be more accessible than other arts organizations as there is a mass appeal to it--- the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival is free, well advertised and presents good quality artists. People often come to just hang out at the Kala Ghoda. However we have found that certain acts such as a symphony concert or the Paul Taylor dance still attracts a different crowd versus the crowd who would come to listen to a popular Bollywood singer. Our tie-up with the Times of India newspaper has helped us reach out much more widely.

What according to you are the key components that make up an arts festival?
It is extremely important to have an aim and an audience—define who you want reach and then program accordingly. I personally don’t like bollywood, but have to program that in because it is a crow-puller and people enjoy it, and more importantly it is a part of our culture and is now know even internationally.

Organisational Structure:
Do you think Indian festivals are using European models of festival-making? If not, how are they different?
We haven’t conducted research on other models of festival-making. The KGAF has evolved through trial and error. However, as we are growing we are reaching out and getting foreign artists to perform at our festival. As our budgets don’t always permit us to get foreign artists we get consulates and other cultural institutions to collaborate with us. This has helped us become popular world over. But the most important difference between our festival and others is that ours is absolutely free for the spectators. A lot of international festivals have tickets for their performances. Also we select and program the artists that perform, whereas at some of the international festival artists apply and pay and book venues to perform.

In general, what is the period in which the team of festival works? During the entire year, or only in a period before and after the time in which the festival takes place? And what is the size of your team?
The work on the festival starts in July-August and continues till March but the pace picks up towards end October and continues till February. We have section heads for the various verticals who do the programming A lot of time goes in getting permissions as there are at least 25-30 permissions that an orgainisation is required to take when one is holding an event. One hopes that a simplier process can be there to get these permissions as a lot of valuable time is wasted in this. Apart from the various section heads (10-12) we have a festival committee of four members that take all the important decisions. We also have an additional festival team of 8- 10 people who help the section heads and also help in putting the festival together. We also have an event management team of about 30 -40 people who help us on ground with the festival. Security agency to manage the security, technical staff, housekeeping etc are all employed for the festival. The local authorities such as the police, traffic police , BMC etc also help us with the logistics of the festival of such a large scale.

How important is the location, legacy and place - understanding the context of the place and generating a passion for participating in the festival among local community?
The location is very important and I feel the success of KGAF is that it is located in the art district of Mumbai. I am not sure if the festival would have been as popular if it was located elsewhere. The KGAF began as a means to facilitate restoration projects in the locality and now we continue doing so by channelizing funds towards further beautification of the area by installing traffic islands and public furniture and cleaning up the area.

Programming:
Did you conduct any formal / informal feasibility studies before launch to check if your festival has appeal?
The festival started to draw people’s attention to the beautiful and historic art precinct that Mumbai had- the Kala Ghoda district. At the start, the festival focused on visual arts and all the galleries in the area were involved. The festival as we see it today as grown much beyond that and of course presents all the arts. We keep reviewing the festival each year to add in new elements so that the festival is not repetitive to the audience.

What are the key challenges in programming your festival – for instance, in commissioning new work, the pros and cons of using themes, financial and political barriers--and how do you overcome them?
Budget constraints – we can’t get the artists we want. There are also political challenges we face and we have to be sensitive towards them. Once we had an art installation of a cow, but had to take it down (the cow is a sacred animal in Hindu mythology). The KGAF is a festival for the masses and we have to run it without offending anyone.

Do you need to differentiate between and define works along the lines of ‘contemporary’ and ‘traditional’ – does that become a challenge, do you have to seek a balance between representing the two?
We present both contemporary and traditional arts. Very modernistic art however, doesn’t work with our audience. Artists need to adapt to our audience. Earlier solo performances were held at smaller venues such as the NGMA but now we request even the senior artists to perform in more public spaces as we feel that this will make them reach out to a much larger audience. Many renowned dancers such as Mallika Sarabai, Sonal Mansingh and Malvika Sarukai have all performed at our more public venues such as the Horniman Circle Garden and Rampart Row.

Is there a commitment to showcasing younger and emerging artists – and how do you how to develop and protect younger and emerging artists whilst putting them on a stage alongside international, world-class work.
We intersperse emerging artists with the established ones – we may end the day with an established artist but the emerging ones present during the day. We also encourage emerging acts just before an established one. The tie-up with the Times of India means that they also publish about the emerging artists giving them important coverage. The KGAF also recommends these artists to other organizations and festivals getting them greater exposure.

How do you balance local community needs with the interests of external visitors and media viewers/readers?
We do get a lot of international tourists through tour companies their factor us into their itinerary. However, we do not promote the KGAF internationally which is something we need to do.

Audiences:
Are you focused on any particular kinds of audiences that you are trying to attract?
We are increasingly focused on children – it is important to start young to get them interested in the arts. Schools or parents don’t provide enough opportunities for exposure to the arts so it is important for the festival to take on this mandate.

We are also not a South Mumbai (elitist) event, but a people’s festival. We get more crowds than we can accommodate. The city’s legislation bans loud speakers on Rampart Row, yet people throng there during the festival because there is such a dearth of things for people to do in the city.

Do you have any audience measurement / feedback systems in place? Can you briefly discuss them?
Feedback often comes on the ground, right on the street. There has been some criticism of the street stalls being repitative at times so we have taken a decision not to repeat the same stalls for more than two festivals. During a Sonu Nigam concert at the Asiatic which is equipped to house about 5000 people, we had crowds of over 30.000- we realized we needed to have a way to cut-off crowds as we don’t want to compromise on people’s safety.

Feedback also comes via the online channels of email and Facebook.

Do you find a disconnect between engaging the audience vis-a-vis respecting the work and the artist. Do you think there is a trend in arts festivals towards more interactive performances?
Most of our audiences have never been exposed to anything outside the usual. On our crowd puller nights we try to expose people to something they would not otherwise go to see. For example, before a popular Sonu Nigam concert, we had Fazal Qureshi perform, so people who came to take early seats for Sonu Nigam got to see another style of Indian music and were very receptive towards it.

What other factors do you consider when measuring the success of your festival: meeting the festival vision, ticket sale/audience numbers or how successful a festival is in launching new artists?
Feedback and audience numbers.

Marketing and PR:
We don’t do any PR – the media covers the event without bias against our partner the TOI.

Funding model:
What sources of funding are available to you? Are there any funding bodies in india that you approach?
Corporate sponsorship is the main source of funding, but money for culture still remains negligible. The Cultural Ministry does give some grants but we have never approached them so far and are managing independently. I feel still we as a nation are not sensitive towards our culture and don’t do enough to support , promote and popularize it.

Who are your partners/collaborators – do you engage in new models of governance and partner¬ship between the arts, sciences, politics, business and other sectors?
Our principal partner for the festival is the TOI. We also tie up with the Maharashtra Tourism development Corporation and last year with the zonal cultural centres. We are hoping to get government support to help us develop an easier process of getting permissions to conduct such a festival.

How important has tourism been for your festival?
We have tied up with the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation and last year with the zonal cultural centres, yet tourism is something that needs a much greater focus.