In the short history of private museums, an occurrence like this becomes rare and significant. As Museo Camera expands into a full-fledged museum of the photographic arts, visual historian Aditya Arya is inviting the public to be its stakeholders.
He has rolled out a crowdfunding project through which he hopes to raise ₹1.5 crore.
Mr. Arya began his project with a display of vintage cameras in the basement of his house in Gurugram.
More than 700 items — camera obscuras (replicas from the U.S.), daguerreotypes, stereo cameras, shutter cameras and paraphernalia like modern stereocard viewers, slides, flashes, camera boxes and ads released by camera companies — delve into the history of photography.
Modern space
The new museum will be set up on an 18,000 sq.ft. modern space hosting curated and permanent exhibitions of works from Mr. Arya’s collection featuring seminal works by photographers. Research, conservation, archiving and digitising will be integral activities of the museum along with related events to promote public interest in the discipline.
A library, demonstration spaces and dark rooms are expected to be part of the museum.
“As of now, over ₹20 lakh has been donated by 40 people from different walks of life,” said Mr. Arya.
“Someone has given ₹100 and someone has donated in thousands and someone in lakhs. People have donated equipment, old cameras. There are youngsters who said they can only afford ₹1,000. I think it’s quite something. In a cultural space, how do you create your name for posterity? This is how you can do it,” Mr. Arya added.
Mr. Arya is raising funds for the project through bitgiving.com/museocamera
Contributors to the new museum will have their names featured in the gallery of donors and will be given donor passes for visits.
