MATI Preserving the Art & Heritage of our Times…..
Management of Art Treasures of India is a trust dedicated to the promotion of India’s alternative art heritage, and be a discursive platform for its continuing journeys. It aims to be a platform for both discursive growth and value generation.
The Prime focus areas are:
Contemporary Folk Art Archive: The basic purpose of the archiveto build documentation, valuation, collection centre for modernist and contemporary folk art. Originals, Photographs, Film & Video, Audio (oral histories), will be the modes of archiving, with a clear mandate to not separate objects for their stories. The aim of CFAR will be to do away with the work folk itself, and establish a history of contemporary art from rural and tribal India.
The other areas of focus would be seminars, discussion sessions, on contemporary rural and tribal art, visual and sound cultures, discussion sessions, exhibitions on contemporary video, performance and sound art.

Organise alternative art fairs and to conduct heritage tours to archaeological/heritage sites, giving deep historical insights with a focus to open new/parallel understandings of India’s cultural heritage. Run the Baywatch Cultural Residency space in Puri, which will work to be the melting pot for contemporary urban and rural art.
MATI launched a three day festival, ‘Continuing Journeys’ sponsored by Art Bull, engaging in an interactive discourse with the general public and the intelligentsia on the state of art, heritage and culture in the country. The three day fest was an inaugural event entailing video curations, short films made by artists,documentaries on artists, seminar on culture, heritage andmuseum by eminent academicians and art practitioners, and a forum for young emerging artists.
The first day began with screening of films made by artists which was quite interesting to see as each film was varied in its style, treatment and the issue it addressed. Ranging from Kashmir to the North- East, to the interiors
of South India, the films covered it all, bringing to fore issues affecting people at the very grass-root level. One striking animation was Aditi Chitre’s ‘Journey to Nagaland’. It recreates the beauty pervading the forests of Nagaland, and the stillness and silence captured through animation is commendable. Other films reflected almost latent art forms
like Bhand Pather which is the traditional folk theatre of Kashmir, now only with a handful of people perpetuating
this art form.
The second day was a more interactive seminar open to general public and people from the art fraternity. The broad topic for the seminar was Culture, Heritage and Museum. Eminent personalities from the art field like Dr. Aruna Vasudev, Professor. Nanda Kumar and Seema Bhalla discussed the state of contemporary heritage in India. It was a day- long seminar that analysed and discussed the steps to be taken in immediate future for contemporary
heritage.
The final day consisted of an open discussion forum for young independent artists. Ten artists from different walks of life were invited to showcase their work and engage in a constructive interaction with the audience. The process and nature of their work was discussed and it did invoke people’s interest in their work. This is the aim of MATI: to focus more on artists and provide a platform for them to feature their work to the general public.
Apart from its mega fundraiser show in the coming twomonths, MATI is looking to expand, begin work on its core focus areas. Apart from the initiation of the archive, MATI will be documenting the Kumbh Mela and the painting tradition of the Korba tribe. The organisation will also be expanding the list of trustees and as MATI moves to be more artist lead, a ten member working committee will be inducted from artists and historians across all disciplines.