Community building at MMCA Sri Lanka

Chief Curator  Sharmini Pereira

Editorial Assistant  Kaumadi Jayaweera

Senior Curator  Sandev Handy

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.

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. 

“It might be fairer to say at this stage, our focus is not on how we conserve and care for a collection but on how we care for the people that come from different communities—all of whom contribute to the establishment of the MMCA Sri Lanka,” Pereira noted. She added that “It is in some sense a fundamental shift away from thinking of museology as strictly linked to a building and assets. Whilst there is much more work to be done, the MMCA Sri Lanka is firmly committed to ensuring the museum is established on the basis of recognising what community has meant in the past, and how it continues to be in flux as a concept.”

Exhibition making is an important part of the MMCA Sri Lanka’s work and provides a means to open up more opportunities for young professionals to train in museum careers. Pereira and MMCA Sri Lanka Senior Curator Sandev Handy addressed this at the ‘International Symposium on Rethinking Heritage: Conflict, Reconciliation and Agency’ held in Jaffna, Sri Lanka on 25 January. Nodding towards the importance of education and communication in rethinking heritage in Sri Lanka, they noted that at the MMCA Sri Lanka, “Exhibition making has hence helped to train and build up an infrastructure of expertise and knowledge which is embedded in a tri-lingual practice.” 

However, exhibition making is not the only focus area for professional development at the MMCA Sri Lanka. This was highlighted by MMCA Editorial Assistant Kaumadi Jayaweera who spoke at the Sri Lanka Design Festival on 7 November 2024 on the topic of what it is like to work at a museum, especially in a career that bridges linguistics and museology. She introduced the audience to different kinds of activities and projects that take place at the MMCA Sri Lanka, including exhibitions, education and public programmes, digital engagement, marketing, collections, archiving, and fundraising, which all involve different varieties of growing expertise among the museum team. “As the first and only museum of modern and contemporary art in the country, it is essential that we think long term about our work in the arts and culture scene in Sri Lanka”, she noted. 

Jayaweera also added that, “Some of our former colleagues have gone on to work in the creative industries in areas such as design, editorial, art writing, and curation. Some have gone on to pursue their higher education in design, architecture, and art history. The kind of work you do at the MMCA Sri Lanka comes with you, as you pursue your creative career beyond the museum.”