organisations
The Mohile Parikh Center (MPC), Mumbai, founded in 1990, is a leading center devoted to the Arts in India. With its commitment to creating a dynamic and informed community receptive to culture, it has functioned as an integral part of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA). The MPC began as a Center for the Visual Arts and continues to focus on contemporary art theory and praxis.
The MPC organizes lectures, panel discussions, audio-visual presentations, seminars, workshops, courses, public art projects and international conferences. The Center’s publications arm has created a series of monographs, books, and posters related to its programs. By emphasizing the idea of pluralism and fostering cross-cultural exchange, the MPC has facilitated the exploration of ideas, perspectives, form, process and materials central to contemporary art and culture.
In 1997, the MPC established the Architecture Forum to foster a spirit of inquiry and introspection amongst architects, students and the community. The Architecture Forum expanded its horizons in 2004 to form The Contemporary, which is committed to new ways of seeing and thinking in and through the arts. The Contemporary has adopted an interdisciplinary approach using academia, architecture, cinema, indigenous knowledge and folk-traditions to explore contemporary culture in India.
MPCVA aims at giving a direction to contemporary art discourses, and to become a one point information and resource centre for artists, scholars, students and the general public. MPCVA wishes to demonstrate across social strata that the arts are an invaluable resource for educating both old and new generations of learners, and thereby creating an informed art community that is capable of both appreciation and critique.
The programme is based in Mumbai. In this phase the objectives of MPCVA are:
The expected outcome from the interventions will lead to substantiating the concept of visual literacy, promoting values of plurality and inclusiveness through a multi-disciplinary approach, creating an informed community of students, artists and others, adding value to art syllabi in colleges and, stimulating understanding and creativity among underprivileged.