Arts Collaboratory

The Mohile Parikh Center (MPC), Mumbai, is one of the leading centers in India devoted to Art, Culture, and Education. Since its inception in 1990, the MPC has been committed to developing a deeper discourse in the cultural arena and its programmes actively respond to the linkages between art, culture and society. With its wide and diverse cultural offer, which includes illustrated talks, discussions, workshops, film screenings, short courses, public art projects, national & international conferences, MPC has established itself as an integral part of Mumbai’s cultural agenda.

With the ongoing project Traversing Precincts in Art, initiated in 2007, the Center has broadened its scope to address the interconnection of various disciplines including Visual Arts, Culture, Humanities and Sciences. Traversing Precincts in Art includes 4 main programmes, namely:

1. Visual Arts: Aims at promoting public understanding and scholarly engagement with the visual arts. It wants to nurture an informed community that responds critically to multiple aspects of contemporary art and complement the curricula of current arts institutions.
2. The Contemporary: Seeks to review Indian contemporary culture through a dynamic,
   open, and ever-changing process that can reflect the complex relations between modernization, globalization, local traditions and the environment.
3. Children & Culture: Aims at reaching out to marginalized and disadvantaged communities and explore the creative links between the arts and sciences.
4. Campus: Promote continuing education and lifelong learning through short courses in the arts, humanities, and sciences and by presenting key ideas and concepts of different disciplines in an accessible manner.

With an emphasis on heterogeneity, rigor, inclusiveness and experimentation, these new programmes were introduced in the Center to address the factors of creativity, philanthrophy and sustainability in the cultural sector in this era of globalization and change. The Center has also broadened its outreach to diverse groups traversing disciplinary boundaries and backgrounds and offering learning modules that create awareness about new modes of thinking and practice.

Traversing Precincts in Art has received many positive responses from the press and beneficiaries of the Center. Thus, in the coming years, MPC is commited to re-inforcing its mission as a center for culture, creating deeper discourses via a multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural framework and by linking creativity, philanthrophy and sustainability in innovative ways.