Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation (MMF) is a living bridge between an extraordinary artistic lineage and the urgencies of the present, founded in 2015 to carry forward the vision of sculptor Mrinalini Mukherjee and the legacies of her parents, modernist Benode Behari Mukherjee and artist‑educator Leela Mukherjee. The foundation stewards a growing archive while nurturing grants, fellowships and research that keep practice and pedagogy in conversation with publics across India. At its core is a belief that art is both memory and method: something to be safeguarded, shared and set in motion.
The MMF Archive anchors this work, housing thousands of records that chart Mrinalini’s four‑decade practice as one of India’s significant sculptors, alongside materials illuminating the worlds of Benode Behari and Leela. From photographs and installation notes to letters and travel images, the archive opens rare vantage points into process and context, and is being digitally opened in phases with institutional collaborations that deepen access for artists, scholars and educators. The foundation’s online exhibition series, beginning with Studio Practice, re‑animates the studio through archival traces, inviting audiences to read making as an evolving conversation.
Images courtesy: MMF website
Beyond preservation, MMF invests in contemporary creation and critical writing through a suite of grants and partnerships. Recent initiatives include the MMF‑PARI Fellowships that commission multimedia stories on arts and crafts in rural India, with an emphasis on women, Dalit and Adivasi practitioners and living traditions shaped by place and labour. These eight‑month junior fellowships back fieldwork, documentation and storytelling that return visibility to makers and materials often kept at the margins.
MMF also collaborates to seed new forms and audiences for non‑fiction cinema. In 2025–26, a joint Documentary Film Fellowships initiative with Rough Edges supports women, trans and queer filmmakers through funding, mentorship and an 8–9 month runway to completion, centring feminist inquiries and alternative narratives that expand how stories of the everyday are told. This focus on care, rigour and experimentation reflects the foundation’s ethos: to resource artists who ask difficult questions while crafting vivid, resonant work.
As a custodian and catalyst, MMF keeps faith with an artistic lineage while welcoming new voices into the fold. By opening archives, circulating knowledge and underwriting risk, it builds a commons where process is active, memory is plural, and art continues to find form in the hands of those who make, teach and imagine.
