Championing culture THE MUMBAI ART COLLECTIVE

ISHAAN JAJODIA, 18

Ishaan Jajodia’s

eyes light up when he talks about the Art Deco and Victorian architecture along the two sides of the Oval Maidan, the forgotten frescoes inside the dome at the General Post Office building and the heirloom silverware at his grandmother’s Marine Drive apartment. His appreciation for art comes from a privilege of access and Jajodia is keen to pay it forward. This June, he founded The Mumbai Art Collective (TMAC), a non-profit organisation that aims to promote and preserve art digitally. It is an ambitious project, and step one, says Jajodia is to identify and reach out to artists. He and his co-curator Aryaman Sen decide what goes on their web page and what doesn’t. Jajodia, who is headed to Dartmouth College for a degree in art history in a few months, has been employing a multimedia strategy to create his art repository. Videos of classical dance performances in the city will soon be up on the website, as will photographs of Mumbai’s vibrant street art. Jajodia hopes to be able to use virtual reality and other digital technology to do justice to Mumbai’s heritage, but in the meantime, he is telling the stories of the buildings through video interviews of the people who embody them—the pastor at Afghan Church, for instance. “Not only do we wish to create a platform for art-lovers and historians to get a picture of Indian culture, we also wish to promote art amongst the citizens of Mumbai,” says Jajodia. Website themumbaiartcollective.com