Madan Meena

Name:
Dr. Madan Lal Meena
Father’s Name:
Late Shri Bheru Lal Meena
Spouse Name:
Dr. Rekha Meena
Date of Birth:
October 13th, 1974 4
Place of Birth:
Narayanpur, district Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan, INDIAå
Profession:
Freelance Artist and Folklore Researcher Professional Engagement Hon. Director of Adivasi Academy, Tejgadh, Gujarat Visiting Faculty at IICD-Jaipur, NID-Krukshetra & Bhopal, NIFT-Jodhpur

Professional Experience

Active in the field of Fine Arts as a practicing painter and printmaker, Folklore Studies, Craft Research and Design Education since more than 25 years. Organized more than two dozen exhibitions of own art works and research works in India and abroad.

Education

1999-2006 Ph.D. on the subject 'Art of Meena Tribe', Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. 
1999 M.A. in Painting (University Gold Medal) Government College, Kota. 
1998 Indian Art & Culture Certificate Course, N.M.I., National Museum, New Delhi.       
1997 Fresco & Mural Painting Certificate Course, Banasthali Vidhyapith, Rajasthan.

Grants & Fellowships

2017 Sahapedia-UNESCO Fellowship to study Bharathari folk ballad among the Kalbelia Jogi community.
2015-16 Senior Research Fellowship, CCRT-Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India
2011-14 Research Grant from Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research, USA to study secret language of the Kanjar community in Rajasthan.
2010 Research Grant from CRASSH, University of Cambridge, UK for documentation and publication of book and audio DVDs on Tejaji Ballad sung South-Eastern Rajasthan.
1999-03 Research Fellowship (NET), University Grants Commission, New Delhi.
1998,99 Students Scholarship by Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academy, Jaipur

Awards & Recognitions

2018 Marwar Ratna by Mehrangarh Fort Trust Jodhpur for the work in Folklores studies. 
2000 State Award, Annual Art Exhibition, Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academi, Jaipur.
1999 South Central Zone Cultural Centre, Nagpur.
1999 Himachal State Museum, Shimla.

Others

2022 Curated the exhibition 'Crafting Livelihood' of the Madari women craft articles at Satya Art Gallery, Ahmedabad.
2022 Curated the exhibition ‘Quilting Memories’ of the Kalbelia Quilts at India International Centre-New Delhi.
2013-14 Exhibition of Meena women paintings at Grafton Regional Gallery, NSW, Australia. and Gallery Artisan, Brisbane, Australia. 
2011-16 State Coordinator for the People’s Linguistic Survey of India, Basha Research and Publication Centre-Vadodara.
2002 'Creativity of Meena Women' exhibition of collection and research work on Meena Women at India International Centre, New Delhi.

Research Projects .

2018-21 Coordinated the study titled ‘Voicing the Community: A Study on the De-notified and Nomadic Tribes of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh’ for Bhasha Research and Publication Centre, Vadodara.
2015 Conducted survey on crafts traditions among different communities of Barmer, Rajasthan. The project was funded by IL&FS & PDCOR.
2013-14 State Coordinator for Educational Survey on Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-nomadic Tribes in Rajasthan. The project was funded by Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi.
2013 Coordinator for Tejaji Gatha documented for All India Radio, Kota.
2006 Genealogical study of Jaga community residing in Eastern Rajasthan. This was to study the system of keeping written records of family lineages. The project was funded by Department of Culture, Government of India.

Curatorial Museum Project

2008-09 Designed the exhibition on Brooms for the ‘Arna-Jharna: The Desert Museum of Rajasthan’ of Rupayan Sansthan, Jodhpur. The project was supported by Ford Foundation.

Present Engagement

Hon. Director of the Adivasi Academy, Tejgadh, Gujarat since June 2018. 

Madan Meena is a practicing visual artist and a researcher working extensively with the rural, nomadic and tribal communities. His personal association with his region and its people led him to choose as his doctoral thesis ‘Art of the Meena Tribe’. Focusing on the women of the Meena tribe he has documented and exhibited their art of wall painting across the country and abroad. His work on the subject is available in his two published books ‘Joy of Creativity’ and ‘Nurturing Walls’.

As a curator, he designed an exhibition on brooms for the ‘Arna Jharna: The Desert Museum of Rajasthan’, Jodhpur. He was also Associate Director for the film ‘Jharu Katha (Broom Stories)’. His interest in folklore studies led him to work on the diverse repertoire of the Tejaji Ballad sung across central and south-eastern Rajasthan. For this he was initially supported by a grant from the University of Cambridge under the World Oral Literature Project and published a book ‘Tejaji Gatha’ and its audio DVD. Later to extend his documentation on the ballad he received a Senior Research Fellowship from the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India. Madan is also a recipient of a Sahapedia–UNESCO Fellowship to study folklore among the Jogi community of eastern Rajasthan.

Madan’s curiosity about languages led him to start  work on the secret language of the de-notified and nomadic tribes. For this he received a fellowship from the Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research, USA. For the People’s Linguistic Survey of India project he co-edited one of the volumes ‘The Languages of Rajasthan’. He has conducted various surveys and researches on the nomadic and denotified tribes (DNTs) of north and western India. 

Madan continually studies languishing craft traditions, the subject which he also teaches as a visiting faculty at some of the design institutes of India. He is a Trustee of Bhasha Research and Publication Centre-Vadodara, Executive Member of Kota Heritage Society, Executive Board Member of Gramin Shiksha Kendra-Sawai Madhopur and member of General Council of Rajasthan Lalit Kala Academy-Jaipur. One of his important responsibilities currently is with the Adivasi Academy in Gujarat where he has been the Honorary Director for the last four years.