India's biggest contemporary art event, the
Kochi Muziris Biennale has launched an online crowdfunding drive to engage the public
and raise much-needed funds for the event.
The Biennale’s campaign, the first-of-its-kind
in India, is hosted on the crowdfunding platform Catapoolt and targets Rs 15 crores in 90 days. Social media
forums—always good at picking up the sense of urgency in matters—are already
abuzz with the news. Ardent KMB supporters MP Shashi Tharoor and film maker
Aashiq Abu, both with highly followed twitter accounts, have been quick to
retweet the crowdfunding news.
The second edition of the
Biennale, curated by renowned artist Jitish Kallat, will run for 108 days
starting from December 12 and will feature the works of 94 artists from 30
countries.
Kochi Muziris Biennale 2014 has a
projected budget of Rs 26 crore and has been pledged some government support and
corporate sponsorship. The crowd-funding drive, besides helping meet part of
the costs, is expected to raise the profile of the Biennale worldwide.
The campaign on Catapoolt, which
has worked on 35 crowdfunding projects in India, allows people anywhere in the
world to make contributions, big or small, and offers rewards for every
contribution made. The site is also accessible through KMB’s official website.
“An event of this scale needs all
the support it can get, but our campaign objective is not just to raise funds;
we want to make it participatory, allow people to take ownership of it and feel
proud of it,” said Riyas Komu, the Secretary of the KBF.
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