Born and raised in Old Delhi, being exposed to the rich history of Indian heritage, traditional practices of art, cooking, games and textiles was a part of Reena Dewan’s growing up years.
“When work brought me to Kolkata, I saw how every house and neighbourhood was connected with one form of arts or the other and I encountered arts in multiple forms across all age groups and socio-economic strata and my visits to Indian Museum, Victoria Memorial and others opened a whole new world for me and I decided to work around arts for the rest of my life,” recalls Reena Dewan, director of Kolkata Centre for Creativity (KCC).
To pursue her dreams, she left a cushy corporate job, taking a risky plunge in her late thirties. “I took a sabbatical and enrolled myself in an art institute to learn and practise art and I am still learning everyday,” adds Dewan, who is currently pursuing a course in Festival Management from Napier University in Edinburg, UK.
Helming the affairs at one of the top art galleries in the city, Reena’s job involves presenting exhibitions and performances besides managing collections and art-oriented research and writings. Besides, she also wants to create learning opportunities for young and mid-career artists and turn KCC into a multi-disciplinary centre, incorporating fine art, performing arts, craft and design. To empower artists and develop leaders, she initiated the Arts Fellowship Program, Arts Laboratory Program and Emerging Artist Platform that nourish young and mid-career artists.
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But being a woman, work-life balance is often challenging. “The patriarchal structure makes us feel guilty if we are focussing too much on our career and we try to be a superwoman juggling job and home perfectly. With time, I realised that I am setting a wrong example for my daughter and that it’s okay to not be perfect all the time,” she says.
With a lot of work stalled due to the pandemic for the past two years, Reena is now travelling extensively to meet artists around the country and planning to showcase children’s theatre on a regular basis.
A champion of inclusivity, Reena is also instrumental in creating tactile artworks inspired by Jogen Chowdhury and KCC’s first braille artist catalogue on Ravinder Reddy in 2019. This year, they are working on creating tactile artworks inspired by celebrated artist Binode Behari Mukherjee’s artworks and a book in braille on related writings. It’s noteworthy that Mukherjee continued creating art even after he lost his eyesight completely and filmmaker Satyajit Ray made a documentary on the same called Inner Eye.
For those women who want to become a curator like her, Reena has a great piece of advice. “Travel and see exhibitions, performances, meet with artists, have conversations with them. Do internships and short courses but beyond everything, build your own style and grammar just like an artist builds his or her unique style,” signs off Dewan.