Connotations having no apparent relation, the words art gallery' and 'mission' seem to be an unlikely combination. Taking a pause and stretching one's thought, one can think of the necessity of public funded art galleries like the National Gallery of Modern Art, the Lalit Kala Akademi galleries and the likes of government museums, of having clearly spelt aims and objectives, transparent policies for realizing the aims and objectives and reviewable functioning. Galleries managed by public trusts and committees with publicly raised funds, like the Rabindra Bharati Society of Calcutta (which lamentably failed to perform its duties), also have similar public (only the concerned segment of the public) accountability. Call this responsibility by any other name, if the term mission seems somewhat inappropriate. But as the word mission connotes a voluntary taking of responsibility, it has to be preferred in connexion with management of art gallery. A privately managed commercial art gallery, however, is altogether a different proposition. A privately managed commercial art gallery, like any other private business organization, is neither a charitable institution nor a social service organization. Its primary dim, like any other business organization's, is sustainability of profit (earning) at increasing rates. Each business however, has to devise business- specific: modes of operation for sustaining increasingly profitable returns. What then are the business specific modes of operation for the privately managed commercial art galleries? The merchandise, on the transactions of which their profits depend, are art objects, paintings, sculptures, fine manual prints, even small installations etc. The galleries have to source them, or get their supplies, from artists. And they have to sell them to people who like to possess art objects for their own satisfaction and/or invest their savings in acquisition of objects which are likely to fetch greater income in future and/or acquire possessions that are likely to act as symbols of status. To maintain al least a steady, if not an increasing, supply of art objects with potential desirability, a commercial art gallery has to strive for, earn and sustain the trust and confidence (from which can follow loyalty) of the art object supplying artists, by time-bound fair play and accounting transparency. A far more difficult proposition is creation and sustaining of demand at increasingly higher levels. It is in this sphere that the art gallery business has to work real hard with innovativeness. A gallery has to constantly strive for creating and sustaining a constantly expanding core of loyal clientele, again by fair deal and assured supply of art objects of their expected quality, regularly.

But fair deal, accounting fidelity and transparency in transactions, both to suppliers and to the clientele, which are essential for a firm's good will, are never sufficient for the commercial success of the firm. Art gallery management in the presently burgeoning and highly competitive art market has become capital intensive. Not only a high investment in fixed capitals has become a sine qua non in the art gallery business, the running capital costs too are rising fast, as more and more saleable artists ore opting from , consigning their works to outright sale to the galleries. The lion's share of capital investment is, however, to be reserved for packaging of merchandise. The packaging cost in fixed capitals include : locational and site specific rents, gallery- readiness costs, including expenditure on ever expanding list of lighting and other equipment; and add lo these the costs of servicing of the fixed capital regularly to maintain these in spic and span condition; and further add to these, the cost of renovation at certain intervals. The major part of the running capital is needed for packaging of the exhibitions, the cost of which is mounting by day. The packaging, or at least the thinking on packaging, for on exhibition ought to start from the planning stage; transporting exhibits carefully, mounting them properly for display, designing the display optimally, designing of invitations, reaching them to properly selected invitees in lime, and designing of exhibition publication (which has become a must do, for record keeping), have to be accomplished with fee-paid help from the specialists in each field. As expert- choice of artists and works are not always available in house, more and more galleries, now-a-days, are going in for curated exhibitions. Unfortunately, ciliated shows even by seasoned art scribes turn out to be carelessly assembled anthologies. To be meaningful, a curated show must have a theme, a point to prove. That, however, is besides the point; the point is, for a curated show a gallery has to pay consultation fee. The listed dos and donts are all art gallery specific business practices which are likely to make a gallery earn a reasonable return, in a competitive market. But not so long ago, not to speak of a competition, there was no market for art objects. What was the situation like, then?

Pioneering commercial art gallery owners like Kekoo Gandhy, Dhoominal Jain, Birendra Kumar, Victor Banerjee, Prakash Kejriwal et.al. had other career choices. Kekoo Gandhy could have remained satisfied with his framing business, Dhoominal Jain could have further expanded his crafts trade, Victor Banerjee could have gone into tea industry (he, however, finally made his choice to be an actor and closed down his gallery), Prakash Kejriwal could have remained an academic with Jodavpur University. But as art collectors to start with, and friends of artists, Kekoo, Victor and Prakesh took upon themselves the mission of infecting their friends, relatives and acquaintances with similar love bugs for art. Themselves having been individuals with accomplishments and socially well-connected with people with expendable savings, they could motivate a large number of buyers; some of whom later became avid collectors. The enthusiasm with which they would pursue their relatives, friends and acquaintances to collect art, the pains they would take and time they would spend on educating prospective collectors cannot be termed just as extra services for merchandising. Similarly, their habit of standing by artists at the time of their distress and need, which they frequently did (not as charity but as emergency relief), would not be considered as sound business practice, albeit in the short run, but in the long run that yielded results. These behavioural fall- outs, can be regarded as the resultant effect of regarding art dealing more than a business; a mission perhaps. The enthusiasm with which this author has seen Kekoo Gandhy and Prakash Kejiriwa promoting exhibitions of groups of artists from which they themselves had nothing to gain, amply demonstrated that with them art dealing was more than a business. It was a mission.

Missionary zeal, or activity not motivated by promise of profitable return (such activity might, on the other hand, involve one in expenses without return), is not something that one associates with business in any other commodity. One cannot even expect this missionary zeal from dealers who have come into business with the expansion of art market. But in the situation of burgeoning art market some dealers, some galleries, can make some difference by rendering some service, along with transactions in merchandise. The services may include advice and action on mounting and framing to conservation and restoration of works of art, from documentation to insurance of art objects. Over and above everything, the dealers need to educate themselves and gather as much knowledge about art as possible, to educate and persuade art collectors and potential collectors. But a note of caution needs to be sounded here. Neither should a commercial art gallery try to function like an art educational institution, nor should a dealer assume the role of teacher. The best way in which a commercial art gallery can fulfill its educational function is by constant information gathering, storing and dissemination of information on art. With the advance in information technology, this has become easier than it was quarter of a century ago. Galleries need expert advise on systematic collection, categorization, standardization and dissemination of worthwhile information, by separating chaff from gain. This can be a mission of commercial art galleries in the twenty-first century. This may be a helpful extra for the artists, collectors and researchers alike.

Vikram Bachhawat opened his Aakriti gallery, in October 2005 with an initial advantage. His father Manik Bachhawat is a fairly known Hindi poet of Calcutta. Manik has more than a usual interest in contemporary visual arts and has been collecting painting since 1 960s. Not only has he been collecting paintings from his contemporary painters, many of whom has been his persona friends. He has written reviews of exhibitions in 60s and 70s, in Hindi, for prestigious publications. Vikram inherited his love for paintings and sculptures from his father and became an avid collector of art and craft objects from early life. Soon he became an expert on blown, cast, moulded and cut glass objects and earned recognition as such from an international encyclopedia on glass. He has been successfully running a business in collectible, before he decided to devote greater energy in building up a business in objects of non-performing visual arts, namely paintings, sculptures and fine manual prints. Vikram could manage capital enough to secure a fairly large gallery space in a prime location in central Calcutta, gear the space up to international standards for holding exhibitions. That Vikram knows how to plan things big, became apparent when he could convince Prol. K.G. Subramanyan to open the doors ol Aakriti gallery in October 2005. Similarly when Jogen Chowdhury inaugurated the Young Bengal show. I curated, on July 9, 2006, with a sketch, it became a unique event. The most remarkable feat, however, has been the acquisition of o slightly larger space in the same venue where Aakriti has opened a state-of-art gallery for sculpture only, the first of its kind in India, before the gallery completed the first year of it; existence.

Although a private commercial gallery is not accountable to anybody for its aims, objectives and operational polices (it is answerable to concerned public only insofar as it's deals and dealings are concerned), certain policies that Vikram's Aakriti has adopted, as those have got manifested through the exhibitions, need to be noted for their significance. Vikram has realized it quite early, that much as he would like and try to beg, coax and cajole well- known artists to agree to exhibit in Aakriti, for a late entrant in art market, it is extremely difficult to procure the works of market-savy artists. Even if the gallery is fortunate of getting some minor work from some major artists, once a while, that would be insufficient to manage the gallery operations year round. His stark reality induced Vikram to scout for and hone young talents and project their talents. It is seer good business sense, conditioned by the unavailability of easily saleable and good revenue earning art, that guided Vikram to talent search and grooming of talented youngsters. But what he has done for accomplishing the task is more remarkable. He engaged art connoisseurs with knowledge, experience and judgement for searching talents and exposing their work in exhibitions curdled by them. And he took upon himself the task of convincing his clientele to invest their savings on the affordable works of the young talents. Vikram's risk taking, confidence and efforts at convincing clientele have not gone in vein. What Vikram is doing cannot be termed as missionary work or social service. But nevertheless, it is good business sense converging with missionary zeal that are working in favour of Vikram's Aakriti.

I have been one of the experienced art activists on whom Vikram reposes his faith for carrying out his policies. And I on my part am trying to use this opportunity to project the future art of Bengal and India. I am thankful for the free hand he has been giving.

--Pranabranjan Roy