A 2011 exhibition sponsored by both the UK Punjab Heritage Association (UKPHA) and the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) titled ‘Inside the Toshakhana: Treasures of the Sikh Courts’. Featuring loans from a principal private collection with additional integral artworks from both public and private bodies.
Juga Singh was invited to lead the design and by 2010 preliminarily exhibition, catalogue, marketing materials and object photography were delivered. In response to the V&A withdrawing, Juga proposed to retheme the exhibition on the ‘Golden Temple of Amritsar’ (focusing on the early 19th century reconstruction). The change in theme had a key benefit of providing audiences a symbolic bridge to the 18-19th century objects on display.
The exhibition spanned two floors with the entrance and exit through the ground gallery. The primary location for the loaned objects and centerpiece mannequin was the ground gallery, where the walls and connecting stairway displayed large format reproductions from the principal collection. The lower gallery contained objects and reproductions on the ‘Golden Temple’ and centerpiece model of the c.1850’s Golden Temple Complex.
Outcome
Marketed as the first major Sikh exhibition since the V&A's 1999 'The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms' and the world’s first major exhibition on the Golden Temple of Amritsar. The first exhibition to introduce and feature the Toor Collection with 80% of the objects on display [63/78] —securing audience engagement, exhibited record of artworks and accredited appraised valuations.
The exhibition received 22,000 visitors and 1,500 attended the programme of symposiums and events. The third best attended exhibition at the Brunei Gallery since its opening; with extensive press coverage, private VIP viewings and high profile guests which included Richard Chapman (Parliamentary Advisor to the Church of England); a representative from the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
In October 2011, John McDonnell MP placed an Early Day Motion[#2249] in the House of Commons : ‘That this House congratulates the UK Punjab Heritage Association (UKPHA) on its stunning recent major exhibition, The Golden Temple of Amritsar: Reflections of the Past at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, which has been the most successful exhibition at the Brunei Gallery in the last decade and its third most popular ever… ‘.
In November 2012 a touring exhibition debuted at the Home Office, with a personal tour given to Home Secretary Theresa May and subsequently displayed in community centres across the UK, exposing the sponsor, an accompanying book and the collection to a wider public.
