Nearly four and half months after its establishment in April, Kiran Manandhar, the Chancellor of the Academy, along with eight other working committee members, now sport offices with air conditioners, newly carpeted floors, expensive furnishings, some with their plastic covers still intact.[break]
“Yes, the exhibition was done in a hasty manner and looked like a bazaar,” admits Manandhar, on Varsha, an all-women art exhibition organized by NAFA in July. Dressed in traditional Nepali attire, he justifies, “But we couldn’t reject many works that had been sent to us from all over the country.”
The lack of professionalism in curating the exhibition was apparent in the cluttered gallery, and nothing was done to replace the stained panels on which paintings hung carelessly.
“Well, it was going to cost us some 300,000 Rupees to get the panels painted. So we didn’t do it,” informs the artist known for his abstract figurative paintings. However, by the time of the exhibition, the staircases and doors of NAFA had already been painted in bright colors. Furthermore, NAFA now owns four brand new cars, estimated at some 1.7 million Rupees each, along with a few motorcycles and cycles.
Infrastructural needs are important, but the extent of expenditures, deemed as “necessary,” is a cause for concern.
In a recent interview with The Rising Nepal, painting department chief Shanta Kumar Rai is quoted as saying that NAFA had received Rs 25 million for the last fiscal year and has demanded Rs 120 million for the upcoming year.“We’ve spent around Rs 15 million on furniture, lighting, painting, and vehicles,” adds Manandhar, stating that the amount was in actuality inadequate because “we needed six cars but only bought four.” These cars, which have been bought with government funds, carry red license plates.
“It’s up to us to put private license plates because we’re an independent body,” defends Manandhar.
Apart from the poorly done Varsha exhibition, in the past few months NAFA organized a talk with academician Dina Bangdel and a two-day workshop on painting.
Even so, NAFA’s future plans are indeed grand. In the next three years of his term, Manandhar envisions a Rs 100 million structure for artists’ residencies, workshop and museum spaces, and a triennial exhibition for SAARC countries budgeted at Rs 200 million.
“Each department is preparing a detailed proposal of workshops and programs with estimated costs,” says Manandhar, putting in
that the former NAFA or Nepal Association of Fine Arts has been dissolved. The painter, who usually resides in France, asserts, “I’m here (Nepal) for four years, only for the Academy.”
In an interview with Republica in April, KUart academic program coordinator Sujan Chitrakar had expressed that the Academy “should be given an opportunity to prove itself.”
With the opportunity now in their hands, time is really ticking for Manandhar and his team at NAFA.
NAFA organogram
Kiran Manandhar Chancellor
Thakur Prasad Mainali Vice Chancellor
K K Karmacharya Member Secretary
Sharada Chitrakar Council member
Karna Prasad Maskey Head of Handicraft department
Shanta Kumar Rai Head of Painting department
Om Bahadur Khatri Head of Sculpture department
Rabin Kumar Koirala Head of Vastu and all other creative fields
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