https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/the-emergence-of-panaji-as-a-cultural-capital/articleshow/61740735.cms
All the world fits so beautifully in Panaji every November, when the International Film Festival of India (IFF) rolls out its annual banquet of superb world cinema. Delegates and cinephiles from all over the world descend in enthusiastic hordes, packing in non-stop film viewing from morning to night. The Mandovi waterfront teems with action, lights, and the unmistakable buzz that comes alongside big screen star power. It's all great fun, but perhaps the most interesting and distinctive aspect of this cultural event is how the tiny capital of India's smallest state takes it all in stride. The first edition of IFFI in Goa brought almost the entire state to wide-eyed standstill, but that is no longer the case at all. It was not very long ago that Panaji was considered little better than a cultural backwater. On the rare chance that a local author wrote a book, the publisher was more than likely to recommend launching it in Mumbai or Delhi or even Lisbon, instead of supposedly sleepy Goa. There was Charles Correa's little jewel-like Kala Academy complex, but precious little else in terms of arts infrastructure. Just over a decade ago, when the brilliant curator and critic Ranjit Hoskote committed to engineering a huge-scale art exhibition, there was no suitable venue available in the city. Instead, the organizers borrowed the marvellous old GMC building, which had already been signed over to a Delhi-based developer to convert into a mall. Aparanta: The Confluence of Contemporary Art in Goa, masterfully curated by Hoskote in 2007, generated a wave of public disapproval for the ill-conceived mall idea, and so the GMC building (which housed the institution that was once the first medical college in Asia) was returned to the accessible cityscape that is available for culture. It is a magnificent but quirky space, so its use isn't always effective. Nonetheless, over the years, it has shone again and again as a site for unlikely pleasures, including the first Serendipity Arts Festival last year, and both editions of The Story Of science-meets-art-meets-philosophy festivals in 2014 and earlier this month. The innovative adaptive reuse of what was once a hospital and medical college— where generations of babies were delivered into the world, and untold numbers of doctors were trained to fan out everywhere on the planet— is just one part of an unlikely story of extraordinary cultural renewal, starring the centuries-old city of Panaji itself. In a series of seemingly uncoordinated developments, several blockbuster buildings along the city's exceedingly pleasant riverside have been purposefully renovated and restored, then dedicated to some aspect of the arts. Starting from almost nothing, this bonanza has now yielded a stunning heritage infrastructure that rivals the best in the country. Most impressively, the trend shows no sign of abating. Just last week, The Story of Space debuted a performance in the old Santa Casa de Misericordia building in Ribandar, which was previously the first hospital in Asia (and more recently the Goa Institute of Management). The space is suited for endless possibilities, such as the long-overdue museum for the state's diaspora.Further, in just a couple of weeks, the doubly ambitious second edition of Serendipity Arts Festival will showcase both exhibitions and performance in the beautifully-located old PWD premises on the Ourem river between the old and new Patto bridges. Here again there is so much potential, including for the recently suggested permanent museum for the history of Panaji. These two new options further bolster an already genuinely formidable arts and culture infrastructure that very few places anywhere can beat. The brilliant, airy Central Library (plus art gallery, studios and three separate auditoria) in Patto. The two separate, outstandingly up-to-date halls of Institute Menezes Braganza. Yet another pair of theatre options at the 1702-built Maquinez Palace. There is also the massively underutilized, but wonderfully restored Reis Magos fortress just across the Mandovi, with its own excellent arts spaces. Plus good old Kala Academy, with its multiple choices ranging from intimate Black Box to open-air amphitheatre. Capping it all is the Adil Shah Palace, or old Secretariat, which unfortunately has still not yet found its place, or reason for being. Long promised to the state citizenry as a world-class museum dedicated to Goa's staggeringly great legacy of modern and contemporary artists (like the peerless contemporaries, Vasudeo Gaitonde and Francis Newton Souza) these great galleries instead languish empty and abandoned most of the time. But when it does swings into use, as will happen again later this year with Serendipity Arts Festival, the entire building sings with exquisite harmony. Many observers have already called it the finest arts space in the country. Certainly, in combination with all else Panaji has to offer, there's nothing else even close.