Jammu: The historic Dogra Art Museum in Jammu has failed to benefit from the Union Ministry of Culture’s Museum Grant Scheme, primarily due to low visitor turnout and a lack of adequate display space, leaving a significant portion of its collection packed away and out of public view. The museum currently falls short of the scheme’s eligibility criterion requiring a minimum of one lakh visitors annually, with actual footfall limited to only a few thousand.
Established as Dogra Art Gallery in 1954 and later upgraded to a full-fledged museum in 1992, the Dogra Art Museum was originally housed in the Pink Hall of the Mubarak Mandi Complex. In 2020, it was temporarily relocated to the Army Headquarters building within the same complex to facilitate restoration work at Mubarak Mandi. Since the shift, a large number of artifacts have remained in storage due to a lack of display facilities at the new location.
According to reliable sources, the Department of Culture has made no substantive efforts to secure additional space or permanently relocate the museum, exacerbating the issue. As a result, despite holding a rich collection of antiquities, paintings, and traditional crafts, the museum remains under-visited and unable to meet the central grant’s minimum footfall requirement.
The Museum Grant Scheme, launched by the Ministry of Culture, aims to support the development and modernization of museums through three components: establishing and developing museums at regional, state, and district levels; digitizing collections; and capacity building for museum professionals. The Dogra Art Museum qualifies under the first component as a Government-owned institution located in the capital of a Union Territory, and it holds a substantial collection. However, its inability to draw sufficient public engagement has repeatedly disqualified it from funding.
Sources revealed that although multiple proposals have been submitted to the Ministry of Culture, all have been rejected for not meeting the footfall threshold. Ironically, several private museums have secured grants under the same scheme, while the Dogra Art Museum—one of the oldest Government-owned institutions—continues to be left out.
The grant covers a broad range of support, including infrastructure development, gallery renovation, storage improvements, publication of museum literature, and upgradation of conservation labs and libraries. Had the Dogra Art Museum qualified, it could have accessed critical resources to improve both its public engagement and preservation capacities.
Experts emphasize that the situation calls for immediate intervention by the Culture Department to either expand the current premises or relocate the museum to a more suitable, accessible venue. Displaying the stored artifacts could significantly enhance public interest and visitor numbers, helping the museum meet the eligibility criteria for national-level support in the future.
