ABOUT THE FOUNDATION

The primary means by which the Foundation will achieve its goals is through the establishment of the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), a new cultural institution that opened its doors to the public in Bengaluru, South India, in 2023. However, its mission is also to support American institutions in their efforts to present exhibitions, the loaning of art objects, and educational programming related to Indian art and culture in order to heighten an appreciation of India’s creative legacy among American audiences.

The Foundation is currently led by a board of eight trustees, each bringing their expertise in fields ranging from commerce and diplomacy—in tandem with their backgrounds in art and museology—to the benefit of its programs, financial objectives, and strategic planning. The Foundation’s Board of Trustees will guide the activities and programs of MAP in the United States, and is an independent entity from MAP’s Board of Trustees and governance in India.

This website provides information on the MAP Foundation in the United States. To learn more about MAP in India, including its collections, current educational programming, progress on the Museum’s construction, and other initiatives to which the Foundation contributes its support, please visit www.map-india.org

AMERICAN MUSEUMS & INDIA

Similar to the princely collections of Europe, during India’s pre-colonial past its extraordinary artistic creativity was patronized and collected by Mughal emperors, nawabs, and Hindu maharajas. These efforts formed the basis of great palatial collections. In the 19th century, as most of India fell under colonial rule, the British established the first Indian museum, primarily founded upon their vision and categorizations of Indian art. After Independence in 1947, it was actually an American, the renowned museum director and museologist Grace Louise McCann Morley (1900–1985), who worked alongside Prime Minister Nehru to create the premiere major national art museum in India. She was to become its founding director. In addition to Morley, MAP shares another kindred link with the museums of America – for many of the greatest art museums were spearheaded as private institutions and through the benevolence of individual collectors, such as Henry Clay Frick, Peggy Guggenheim, J.P. Morgan, and Avery Brundage.

MAP now wishes to continue these pioneering bonds between the countries of India and the United States through the sharing of its artistic legacy, forging strong collaborative undertakings such as an inaugural major exhibition of Indian art presented in both countries; the exhibiting of American collections of Indian art in India; co-curatorship of MAP exhibitions by emerging American and Indian art scholars; joint interpretative and educational programming; publications for diverse readers, ranging from school children to scholars; and the partnering of art conservation methods and resources. Most significantly, in the spirit of Grace Morley, we welcome the opportunity to tell the story of Indian culture, now through the most contemporary and innovative methods, to its custodians—the people of India—and ensure that this narrative will continue for generations to come.

More than 70 years after Indian independence, and as a 21st -century phenomenon, MAP will represent a true cultural reciprocity between the two nations. While welcoming American museums’ expertise in conservation and museology, MAP reciprocates by serving as a “cultural diplomat” in the United States, encouraging a greater appreciation of one of this earth’s oldest and long-enduring civilizations and now a diverse country representing the world’s largest democracy on earth and the second-most populous nation.

SUPPORTING THE MAP FOUNDATION

The Foundation is registered as a charitable corporation under chapter 180 of the General Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and under the Section 501(c)(3) by the United States Internal Revenue Code and is exempt to the greatest extent permitted by law from federal income tax under IRC section 501 (3) c. Its Trustees govern the Foundation in accordance with its Articles of Association and Bylaws. Contributions to the Foundation will be initially used in support of the Museum in Bangalore as well as the initial planning and implementation of shared programming between MAP and cultural institutions in the United States.

The Foundation also welcomes—and will appropriately acknowledge in accordance with the United States Internal Revenue Code—donations of works on behalf of the Museum of Art & Photography. Through this gesture of the Museum will be able to grow and expand its collections to ensure that it will be encyclopedic in its representation of all aspects, mediums, and epochs of Indian art.