https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/events/goa/its-time-to-rethink-panajis-cultural-capital/articleshow/86110577.cms
An excellent decision from an unexpected source has cast another highlight on Panjim’s superb heritage infrastructure, where the success of both private and non-state actors serves to underline the Goa administration’s own entrenched failures over many years and across every political alignment. The latest snippet of good news came via Sudhir Jakhere, the senior superintendent of post offices (SSPO), who announced well-conceived plans to convert the upper floor of the postal service’s colonial-era headquarters into the first philately museum in this part of the country (there are much older ones in New Delhi, Calcutta and Allahabad). To his credit, SSPO Jakhere has formulated these plans in consultation with the philatelic community in India’s smallest state, which is already very excited about exhibitions to showcase Goa’s remarkable transcultural legacy in stamps. It is an extremely promising starting point. Just down the waterfront from the India Post building is another one-of-a-kind cultural showcase. In its own gorgeous, centuries-old state headquarters, the Indian Customs and Excise department maintains its only museum anywhere, which depicts the never-ending battle between smugglers and the officers tasked with thwarting them. Good stuff, but what of art? Where can we experience and understand the peerless legacy of Goa’s artistic heritage from Mesolithic-era petroglyphs first carved thousands of years ago right to the foundational figures of Indian modernism: Vasudeo Gaitonde and Francis Newton Souza? In addition, what of Indo-Portuguese furniture, which is elsewhere the centrepiece of grand collections like the V&A? How about the amazing history of photography in Goa, and by Goan photographers? Shouldn’t we have a diaspora museum, tracking our story around the world? What about Goa’s peerless musical legacy, in both Hindustani and Western classical music, with a highlight reel stretching from Bollywood to Jazz to Trance? For all this – and very much more – there is next to nothing. It is an unconscionable situation, perpetrated over decades of neglect, with generations of Goans compelled to grow up largely ignorant about their own historical, cultural, social, artistic and architectural heritage. Here, it should be noted that the Trindade collection in Fontainhas allows visitors to view a handful of masterpieces by the Goan exemplar of the Bombay School of painting. But that is the work of the Lisbon-based Fundação Oriente, and another Portuguese organization, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation has been the steadfast supporter of the Museum of Christian Art in Old Goa (where the Indian government has also supplied significant funds). This doesn’t say very much about Goa’s own wherewithal even 60 solid years after decolonization. The truth is that it wasn’t always like this. The Kala Academy had an excellent collection of paintings (including two magnificent Gaitonde canvases that are currently unaccounted for), and the Institute Menezes Braganza (formerly named after Vasco da Gama) painstakingly built one of the greatest collections of modern art in India: signed lithographs by Impressionists like Renoir, Braque, and Pissarro. Until it became the pariah of successive administrations, there was a State Museum – albeit an extremely shabby one – where you could see some of these things. But it is also equally true that it doesn’t have to remain this way. Under the leadership of Prasad Lolayekar, who headed the Department of Art and Culture for a stellar decade until 2017, the state made many wise investments in improving and upgrading heritage infrastructure. Now, with new vacancies in another set of stunning buildings at Altinho – the former Lyceum Complex – as well as the pressing need to reinvent tourism for the post-pandemic area, there’s another chance to reposition Panjim as the most exciting cultural destination in India (which does happen, but only for short spurts such as IFFI or the Serendipity Arts Festival). That opportunity is real, but so are the threats. The state spent millions to renovate the Adil Shah palace, but then half was hijacked by bureaucrats who have no business being there. The same happened to the premises of Asia’s first public library. Similarly, the marvellous spaces in the Old GMC are irresponsibly misused as a warren of tiny offices that come to life only once a year during IFFI. There is no comprehensive plan, which indicates that Panjim needs its own director of art and culture, in order to live up to its inherent promise. Make no mistake, that potential is endlessly impressive. From the old PWD complex (which is awaiting adaptive reuse) to the Post Office and Customs museums, the flowing galleries of the Adil Shah Palace and old Goa Medical College, the former state library (still to be vacated), the Institute Menezes Braganza stages, and the readymade set of jewels that is the former Lyceum Complex, it’s an extraordinary array of riches. Add to that the renovated Kala Academy, and it is one of the finest interlinked arrays of heritage infrastructure for the arts, anywhere in the world.