State’s third Tribal Museum to come up in Dindori district

Bhopal: After Bhopal and Khajuraho, MP will soon have another museum, which is dedicated to the ethnic tribes of the state. “Patangarh in Dindori district has been chosen for this important platform as CM Chouhan had announced a few years ago that an art centre will be made in the memory of iconic Gond painter Jangarh Singh Shyam at his native place. Shyam had committed suicide in Japan a couple of decades ago,” said curator of Bhopal and Khajuraho Museum, Ashok Mishra, who is also in-charge of upcoming museum.Jangarh Singh was first Gond artist, who had worked along with legendary artist J Swaminathan, who had played a key role in setting up Bharat Bhawan in Bhopal. This new endeavour will initially have six galleries; one of them will be dedicated to Jangarh Singh and his contribution to tribal culture. Another one will have works of his contemporary artists while other galleries will be an ode to different ethnic art forms of Madhya Pradesh, said curator of the museum.“The planning part of this important project has started. We have recently been allotted 4 acres of land at Patangarh; the work will begin in this financial year itself. We plan to finish it in two years after the commencement and the expenditure will be around Rs 5 crore - Rs 7 crore,” he said.Many tribals in the region are still battling poverty and illiteracy. So, another major focus of this project is also to promote tribal art and train the tribals living in Dindori district in the finer nuances of local art, craft, marketing, packaging etc. The idea is to help them lead an empowered life and ensure that they get to enjoy a better economic status, said an official.