Contemporary art as never before, has brought people’s personal and collective issues to the foreground and yet suffers a great disconnect with the very people to whom it gives a voice. Why this rupture? Can we find ways to engage wider art audiences in Pakistan?

There is a perception that the language of contemporary art is too esoteric to make it accessible to the uninitiated. Surely different layers are accessed by audiences depending on their exposure and knowledge, understandably art professionals are expected to have a deeper knowledge and yet we cannot ignore the instinctive connection people make with art.

If we were to compare the art exhibitions of the 1970s with today, the very large audiences drawn by the Sadequain shows and the National Art Exhibitions organised annually by the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) at the Arts Council, were not only phenomenal in number but also much more diverse than what are seen in commercial galleries today. Leading artists, poets, writers, journalists, singers and musicians, all took interest in visual art and they would frequently be seen interacting under the roof of the Arts Council in Karachi.

Once art disappeared from the public space, its audience not only shrunk but its elitist tag became more pronounced. Today the discussion is centred round the artist and the buyers, and the general audience has been almost left out of the equation. Even the electronic media coverage of exhibitions has failed to convince the average viewer that art is relevant to life.

There is an urgent need to widen the existing small and tight circle around art with inclusive strategies. Interventions can only be effective if people are motivated by an understanding of how the art through its visual language projects national aspirations and collective social dilemmas and social capital of a country. For this, schools, colleges and universities need to introduce cultural studies in its curriculum to enable the youth to objectively depoliticise culture and bring it in the domain of social development.

It will also act as a tool to deconstruct the negative propaganda that surrounds culture. It’s time drama, dance and art were seen as an articulation of collective memory, a provocative voice that seeks answers to shared concerns as well as an epistemological link. Only then will people see, not just a metal structure of a fish by Zahoorul Aklaq’s at the Bahria Museum ( Karachi) entrance but recognise it as a symbol of society in transition, for Zahoor too, like his peers, modernism personified hope and optimism.

The galleries that have made art sustainable and established an art market in the last 20 years can now as corporate social responsibility be more—proactive in developing educational programmes alongside their marketing and media services. They can see it as an investment, as the students of today will be the art collector/patrons of tomorrow.

Few think of the large untapped potential in the hinterland which has been excluded from most art activities. My personal experience of small town is that there is a desire to participate in the cultural dialogue but the facilities are just not available for the rural community neither are the self-absorbed urbanites willing to be inclusive.

For six decades the public cultural institutions and its programming has been in the hands of bureaucrats but today this professionalised field needs personnel trained in the field of cultural management to turn the dysfunctional public spaces around to enable mass participation in meaningful cultural activities.

It’s time the budget of the federal and provincial cultural ministries, spent mostly on salaries and maintenance which needs also to be adjusted to prioritise relevant programmes on culture, the very purpose for which these ministries exist.

A nation brutally fractured by violence, intolerance and distrust, needs to find a way to rebuild itself by learning to listen to each other and share, celebrate diversity and give people a common voice, culture which allows multiple viewpoints to co-exist can help communities to re-connect with the more gentle and human side of life. Contemporary thinker Ziauddin Sardar defines the age of globalisation as ‘post-normal’ times, when contradictions and chaos offer major challenges to the human race.

He suggests, “The most important ingredients for coping with post-normal times, as Cilliers suggests and I would argue, are imagination and creativity. Why? Because we have no other way of dealing with the complexity, contradictions and chaos. Imagination is the main tool; indeed I would suggest the only tool, which takes us from simple reasoned analysis to higher synthesis. While imagination is intangible, it creates and shapes our reality, while a mental tool; it affects our behaviour and expectations. We will have to imagine our way out of the post-normal times.”