How Bengaluru's private museums are beating the odds

While footfall has grown, infrastructure and budgetary constraints persist.

Despite growing engagement from youngsters seeking immersive, community-driven experiences, private museums in Bengaluru continue to face financial and infrastructural challenges. Ahead of International Museum Day (May 18), Metrolife speaks to people in charge of a few museums about how they are keeping the show going.

Lack of funds

J’s La Quill Museum on Fort D Street is dedicated to handwriting instruments and writing culture. It is free for visitors. Collector and calligrapher K C Janardhan runs the space largely through personal investment and a charitable trust. He says the trust currently accepts equipment and infrastructure support instead of monetary donations. At present, he manages the museum alone.

What began as a niche space for pen enthusiasts has evolved into an experiential museum that hosts workshops, handwriting courses, and reading events. Blogs, reels, and media coverage have boosted visitors from across India as well as Europe and the US in recent years. He has plans to relocate the museum to a larger space.

“Once we start hiring staff, we will need close to Rs 3 lakh every month for salaries and maintenance,” says Janardhan. Currently, the maintenance and infrastructural costs of the museum come up to Rs 6 lakh per year. 

Janardhan feels that unlike public museums, which have institutional support and are located in prominent areas, private museums need better signage, cleaner surroundings, and easier access to government grants to become more accessible.

Skewed attention

Preema John, director of the Indian Music Experience museum in J P Nagar, feels philanthropic support must extend beyond the creation of cultural institutions. She says recurring expenses, including operations and programming, “receive far less attention”. The museum consistently raises external funds for these areas.

To sustain engagement, the museum plans to introduce VR-based exhibits, galleries dedicated to tribal music traditions, a museum bus project, and a new performance space, says Preema.

At Vimor Museum of Living Textiles in Austin Town, founder Pavithra Muddaya treats textiles as living archives of communities and shared histories.

The museum, which charges an entry fee starting at Rs 300, attracts around 200 to 250 visitors a month. Much of its collection has come through donations of textiles passed down through families, but she bears the overhead costs personally. As the collection expands and requires more space, she is now “considering external funding more seriously”.

She believes cultural institutions need greater support from government bodies, such as the tourism board.

Survival woes 

The Short Wave Radio Museum in Basaveshwara Nagar is free for visitors. Founder Uday Kalburgi has exhibited nearly 250 radios dating from 1928 to 1967 in a bid to help younger generations understand “what radio meant before the digital age”. While the museum attracts students, researchers, and radio enthusiasts from across India and overseas, the 62-year-old says the challenges are many.

University collaborations, he says, rarely translate into financial support. He relies largely on his pension and radio restoration work to sustain the museum. He currently spends around Rs 3 to Rs 5.5 lakh per year on the maintenance and restoration of radios.

To ensure the survival of his collection, he eventually plans to donate it to museums run by Veerendra Heggade in Dharmasthala and Mysuru.