Team Art Soul Life speaks to Anjani Kumar Singh, Advisor to Chief Minister, Bihar and Director General of Bihar Museum at Patna. He is the force behind showcasing the rich heritage of Bihar with a focus on storytelling and giving an engaging and dynamic experience to the visitors of the Bihar Museum, Patna.
ASL: What is the vision behind organising the Bihar Museum Biennale?
The Bihar Museum Biennale originated because there was no platform for museums and related art institutions. There are many famous art, design and architecture biennales in the world, but no platform for sharing collections, issues and innovations related to museums. We organised a conference of Indian museums of all types and floated this idea. There are more than a thousand museums in India, but we hardly knew each other in detail. We started the Bihar Museum Biennale to bridge this gap.
ASL: What has been the experience of organising biennales?
The first edition of the biennale in 2021 was for Indian museums. But because of the pandemic, we had to go virtual. Once it was virtual, besides a dozen Indian museums, half a dozen foreign museums also participated. The second edition of the biennale in 2023 had more than 30 countries participating in physical form. The highlight was the art exhibition for G20 and guest countries, in which 28 countries participated. The theme was Together We Art.
The third edition of the biennale in 2025 is focused on countries from the Global South and covers the continents of Africa, Latin America and Asia. In all these editions, we had exhibitions, seminars, talks, performing arts and films from participating museums and art institutions.
ASL: Why did the Bihar Museum become so famous?
Bihar Museum fills a huge gap in museum infrastructure in India. Unfortunately, in post-independent India, there was no major investment in creating museum infrastructure.
The vision of Shri Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, was to create a huge cultural infrastructure in Bihar to boost tourism and showcase the heritage and culture of Bihar in India.
For creating this museum, we went for the best resources available in the field of museums. We had Lord Cultural Resources of Canada as our master consultant, Maki & Associates as the architects, Kingsmen and Citynecon as fabricators, and Lopez as brand and communication consultants.
Today, the Bihar Museum is one of the largest museum infrastructures in South Asia. It has developed as a cultural center more than just a museum.
ASL: How have the visitor numbers and their experience been?
We get about 5 lakh ticketed visitors annually, besides 1 lakh visitors who come free for various programmes in the museum. We are happy that 25 percent of the visitors are children and 30 percent are women. Bihar Museum is an experiential museum, and one of our focuses is on giving a happy and engaging experience to visitors.
ASL: How are younger visitors responding?
Before the making of the museum, we had detailed discussions with school children, street children and children with disabilities. Their ideas and suggestions were incorporated in the fabrication of the children’s section. In this section, we encourage children to touch, feel and play with the artefacts. You will see video screens at different heights to accommodate children of different age groups. Apart from a dedicated Children’s Section in the Museum, we also organise various activities for children on a regular basis.
ASL: Why are Indian artefacts not seen much in foreign art exhibitions?
It is true. Sending and receiving artworks in India is a little complicated. But the Bihar Museum did participate in the Tree and Serpent exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. We also participated in the Asian Bronze exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. We had a successful exhibition of contemporary art at the National Museum of Kazakhstan. An exhibition on Sita was sent to Guyana, where we have a large Bihari diaspora. The scene is changing, and we will be sending exhibitions to Mexico, the USSR and many more countries.
ASL: When the Patna Museum existed, why was there a need to create a new museum?
Patna Museum has beautiful architecture and a huge collection. As the collection was vast, there was an idea to create additional space. After examining this, the Chief Minister felt that we should go for a new modern world- class museum so that the artefacts are displayed properly and visitors get a better experience. It was also decided that the personality of the Patna Museum should be maintained and the building should be conserved. Thus, Bihar Museum became primarily a history museum, and the Patna Museum will be a modern and contemporary museum. We have modernised the Patna Museum as well.
ASL: Besides antiquities, the Bihar Museum has an impressive collection of folk and contemporary art. What is the rationale?
We wanted to give variety to visitors. We have galleries for folk art, contemporary art, the Bihari diaspora and even a restaurant specialising in Bihari cuisine. We have promoted the folk art of Bihar in a very big way by organising exhibitions in various museums in the country and abroad.
ASL: What are the major challenges for the Bihar Museum now?
Making the building and displaying the collection is the easier part. Running and maintaining the museum is difficult and requires a good, motivated team and adequate funding. The Bihar Museum has been lucky on both counts.
A museum cannot stand alone. A lot of collaboration and networking are required. We are also adopting modern technology to enhance the visitor experience.
ASL: How has running the museum affected your life?
It was during the planning of the Bihar Museum that I got to interact with a lot of artists of our country and dive deep into the world of art. Now I also have a personal museum known as the Himmat Museum, named after the famous artist Himmat Shah. It has about 300 artworks collected during the last ten years. My family also runs an art center named Arpana Kala Kendra, named after the famous artist Arpana Caur.
