The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Sri Lanka (MMCA Sri Lanka) is the country’s first public initiative dedicated to the collection, research, conservation, and display of modern and contemporary art. The museum strives to make its exhibitions and public programmes more accessible for visitors by being free and offering all information in Sinhala, Tamil, and English. Towards this end, the MMCA Sri Lanka receives financial assistance through grants and private sector funding, alongside support from a group of Founding Patrons who are the first of their kind in Sri Lanka.
The MMCA Sri Lanka raises funding from a range of local and international sources such as the John Keells Foundation and Fairfirst Insurance. “These funders have started to recognise how the arts can build community in Sri Lanka. Their investment directly helps to establish a major cultural attraction for the benefit of multiple publics, and to train and provide livelihood development to young museum professionals,” said Sharmini Pereira, Chief Curator at the MMCA Sri Lanka.
Addressing the increasing recognition within the corporate sector of the arts’ role in community building, Pereira added that, “Many potential corporate funders probably think they don’t have funds to spare, but it’s not the level of funding that matters. We are more interested in a long-term relationship, and to develop funding support over a 3–5 year time frame. It is a more sustainable approach but also means more companies can get involved,” she said.
MMCA Sri Lanka’s exhibition ‘88 Acres: The Watapuluwa Housing Scheme by Minnette De Silva’ underscored the collaborative support of organisations in preserving and promoting modern and contemporary architecture in Sri Lanka. Support for the exhibition came from British Council, World Monuments Fund (WMF), Sri Lanka Institute of Architects (SLIA), Art South Asia Project (ASAP), Foundation for Arts Initiatives (FfAI), and Foto Design, with important marketing support provided by Lite87, Rhythm FM, and Rock FM.
One major impact of such funding is supporting the creation of new artworks in Sri Lanka which directly benefits the livelihoods of contemporary artists. ‘88 Acres’ featured the specially commissioned animated documentary ‘is this an architectural documentary?’ (2023) by contemporary artists Irushi Tennekoon, Sumedha Kelegama, and Sumudu Athukorala. The artwork was funded by the British Council Digital Collaboration Fund, which supports UK and overseas cultural partnerships to develop digitally innovative ways of collaborating. The work premiered in London in September 2024 as part of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Tropical Modernism events programme.
In addition, the British Council funded 78 free, public programmes that the MMCA Sri Lanka curated alongside ‘88 Acres’, recognising the importance of supporting trilingual conversations around artists’ projects.
‘88 Acres’ was also endorsed by WMF, a first for an exhibition focussed on Sri Lankan modern architecture. Their recognition extended to supporting the Museum’s first research publication ‘Second Volume: The Watapuluwa Housing Scheme by Minnette De Silva’ (2024). Further support for the publication was received from SLIA who gave permission to republish De Silva’s seminal essay ‘Experiments in Modern Regional Architecture in Ceylon 1950 to 1960’ (1965–1966). One of the major highlights of the exhibition featured De Silva’s ‘Teaching slides of Asian Civilization through Architecture and Art’ (1975–1980), which were loaned from the SLIA archives.
A new partnership that started in 2023 with ASAP, who funded ‘Second Volume,’ further demonstrates the museum’s efforts in generating published research. The FfAI, with over 60 years of advocacy for contemporary arts and culture in countries where government funding does not exist, have been a long-term supporter of the museum and helped a two-year audience development and museum training programme.
Establishing a greater appetite for support of modern and contemporary art is something that the MMCA Sri Lanka has achieved, and the country can look forward to seeing more from this new museum in achieving its goal of opening a permanent venue.