The artsy sisters

Sister-duo Atiya and Atika are not artists; the former did her MA and Atika completed her M Com among other degrees, but both were driven by love for art, and they started their art gallery ‘Daira Centre for Arts and Culture’ 17 years ago.

Atiya Amjad did her MA in literature because her mother wanted her to study a professional degree. Atiya Amjad one of founders of ‘Daira Centre for Arts and Culture’, Hyderabad got a chance to write in the year 1993 for erstwhile newspaper, News Time on art; Atiya was more than happy to do it. “I always wanted to be an artist,” she recalls with a smile.

In 1998, she started curating shows for her artist friends when she realised that people in Hyderabad need space to showcase creativity and art. “In those days many young artists from Hyderabad came back with their degrees from University of Baroda, faculty of Fine Arts, Sarojini Naidu School of Arts & Communication (UoH) and from Shantiniketan, but there was no opportunity for them to showcase their work in Hyderabad. And, I joined Alliance Francaise Gallery and started managing the gallery and a few shows. It was in 2001, I and my sister came up with ‘Daira Centre for Arts and Culture’,” shares Atiya.
Atika Amjad on the other hand was confused after her post-graduation.

She joined IAS coaching and did ACS course but wanted to do more. “I did PG Diploma in journalism and worked as a journalist for six years. During the time, Atiya was looking for a partner to start a gallery, and for any commercial venture you need two things one is creativity and the second one is business acumen. So, Atiya took up the creativity part and I started to handle business,” relates Atika.

It was not easy for the sisters to start a gallery. “Being from a Muslim family it was not easy for us, but our family was always supportive, and they believed in us, and today they are proud of us,” says Atiya.
Art is always challenging but when one gets into the field it’s for the love of art. “There were innumerable challenges. To start with there was hardly any audience for the plastic art segment.

Therefore, we came with creative ways to reach and create an audience in Hyderabad. Collaborations with other arts was one major resolution that solved the problem. The next challenge is the market, whatever market was there being majorly ignorant. Majority of the buyers picked up eye candy stuff. Even if we would like to correct this with art appreciation programmes takers were few,” says Atiya.

“Ours was a private organisation and there were no funds for us and we were struggling a lot in those days, and even now,” confides Atika. However, “Art was my inspiration. Just the knowledge that I can deliver creatively was good enough to take this decision,” adds Atiya.

They also realised there is a lack of education in art. This eventually led to the beginning of a gallery for children. “We started ‘The Children’s Fine Art Gallery’ and ‘Art First India’ syllabus to teach children about art. If they will study art now, they will know the value of art,” asserts Atika.

When it comes to business Atiya shares their philosophy, “Like any other aspect of work we handle business as well. We do not hard sell art. We would like collectors to understand the art and artist that they are investing in before collecting art.”