"My role will be to protect the legacy of the founder,” Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy (Rustom) told Parsiana on October 27, 2023. He was speaking to us about the restructuring of the Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy (JJ) School of Art, Architecture and Applied Arts. Granted a de-novo deemed university status, the institution will be known as Sir J. J. School of Art, Architecture and Design. A de-novo university specializes in unique and emerging forms of knowledge. "We have to see the School survives and flourishes… The last couple of years have not been glorious… Let us try to bring back the old glory days… We all know where it was 100 years ago… There is immense talent... but there is a lack of allocated funds,” he lamented.
From l: Chandrakant Patil, Dharmendra Pradhan, Devendra Fadnavis, Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy;
Logo of Sir J. J. School of Art
But newspaper reports stated the state government has granted for the restoration of heritage buildings in the campus Rs 26 crores (USD 3.1 million) and a hostel building in Bandra at a cost of Rs 130 crores (USD 15.6 million) to accommodate 1,200 students.
"The university will have five new departments and aims to become an institute of eminence. Future funding will come from the Sir J. J. School of Art, Architecture and Design Foundation,” noted the Hindustan Times of October 20. The Foundation, set up under the Companies Act, 2013, will be able to raise funds independently, noted The Times of India (ToI) of October 20. Rustom is one of the independent directors of the Foundation, along with Vikas Rastogi, principal secretary, state government and the deans of the various faculties, among others.
"J. J. School is not just an institute; it’s a laboratory of innovation,” union minister of education Dharmendra Pradhan said at a function at the School campus when he handed over a notification from the central government gazette to state deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Starting new courses, off-campuses and offshore campuses are on the cards, noted ToI.
The School began in 1857, thanks to the munificence of philanthropist Sir JJ, the first baronet, with elementary drawing and design classes at Elphinstone Institute, says their website. With the initial aim of imparting European academic art knowledge in the subcontinent, it established art and craft departments, with rich diversity of culture in India as the resource point. In 1865, the School moved to its current location in the Esplanade when "the building(s) began to be structured.”
Over the years, the School’s alumni have included artists and architects like Vasudeo Gaitonde, Akbar Padamsee, Tyeb Mehta, Jeram Patel, Prabhakar Kolte, Krishnamachari Bose, Nari Gandhi and Piloo Mody. Speaking at the 225th birth anniversary of the first baronet in 2009, senior artist Jehangir Sabavala had stated that the School was then at the crossroads and needed restructuring and modernizing (see "The inheritors,” Parsiana, August 21, 2009).