Community building at MMCA Sri Lanka

WITH a steadfast goal of introducing new careers in the museum sector to young professionals in Sri Lanka, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Sri Lanka (MMCA Sri Lanka) is committed to train and build up expertise and knowledge among local communities.

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MMCA Sri Lanka Chief Curator Sharmini Pereira emphasised this commitment at the 'Singapore Art Week Forum 2025: Art Publics' on 15 January, organised by the Singapore National Gallery, Singapore Art Museum, and the National Arts Council in Singapore. Pereira spoke in a panel titled 'Creating Communities', where she recognised how exhibition making has given the MMCA Sri Lanka the opportunity to create community by building human capital in the form of curators, exhibition designers, installers, editors, translators, and conservators, among others.

Pereira looked at how the MMCA Sri Lanka builds itself around the community, as the country's first museum of modern and contemporary art and as a museum-in-the-making. She addressed this in terms of physical proximity and shared spaces, language, museum events and public programmes, education and outreach, fundraising projects, and most importantly, in training its staff of museum professionals.