Kiran Nadar on Padma Award: Fantastic feeling, but journey continues
Delhi-based art collector Kiran Nadar is one of the Padma awardees for 2024. She speaks to HT City exclusively about her desire to make people appreciate art.
"When I picked up art collection, I wanted people, especially in India, to see and relate to it... Getting the Padma Shri was never on my agenda. But, getting it is a fantastic feeling," says Kiran Nadar, who has been named on the list of Padma awardees for 2024.
This Delhi-based avid art collector is well-known as the founder-chairperson of Kiran Nadar Museum of Art and a trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation. This makes one wonder if the receiving one of India's highest civilian awards would ease her endeavours of making art accessible to the masses. But, Nadar feels otherwise and says, "Getting this award is a fantastic feeling because I've been recognised for something that I've undertaken. I'm happy about it, but I'm not saying that now that the Padma has happened, it will make my journey much easier. No, these two are not linked. The journey has to take place anyway."
"I have collected 13,000 works so far," says Nadar, who always hopes to see more people walk into art shows and museums. "A lot of people find it difficult to relate (to art) or become nervous about going to a show or an artist because they feel they don't belong there. So, the negative perception is there. I feel people need to break that. Anyone can appreciate art! This is the kind of education that we are trying to impart. We are trying to educate children at the school level and hoping that children will find this in their parents, and reverse psychology will work. The process is slow, but from the time we started till today, there's more acceptance of people coming into art, and there has definitely been growth," adds Nadar, who is also an international bridge player.
It's not that usual for those who are not artists and only patrons to be conferred this award. State this, and Nadar opines, "There are many different areas of art, but one thing that is very important is to democratise caring for art. If we can get people involved in caring for art, that is one of the main aims that I'm trying to follow. So while I am not an artist, I'm a lover of art, and I want to make art an easily understandable subject for the common man. I think that's why the award is being given to someone who is a not an artist but works in the sphere of art."
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