Tourism department, NGO in pact: Venkatappa gallery to add photo section

BENGALURU: The Venkatappa Art Gallery is set to house a museum of art and photography (MAP) as part of an agreement between the Tourism Department and Tasveer Foundation, a city-based nonprofit. The foundation will run the gallery and will have scheduled shows for the public.

The MAP project centres on art, photography and design and will reach out to artists through exhibitions, loans, lectures and so on. It will be co-branded with the gallery.

The project is estimated to cost Rs 10-15 crore. "A section of corporate leaders like Embassy Group's Jitu Virwani, Biocon's Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Sasken Group's Rajiv Mody have promised support," said foundation's trustee Abhishek Poddar. "The government has promised support in getting the necessary approvals," he said.

The gallery is expected to have an international setting. While the existing structure will remain, more space will be added and interiors modified to host larger shows. An auditorium, cafeteria and museum store will be added too. Post-renovation, more international artists and art works will be showcased at the gallery so that a two-way connection can be forged with foreign galleries to showcase Indian works.

Architect Soumitro Ghosh -who is associated with the project -believes a good curator makes a gallery much more people-friendly. "Perhaps due to funding constraints, the government finds it hard to get experts as curators. Now that the gallery can access best consultants globally with private funding, we can have longer programmes regularly ," he told ET.

The foundation will maintain specific temperature and lighting at the gallery to preserve heritage paintings.

Museum expert Tejshvi Jain felt the government should take art beyond galleries and into the realms of public space. "The Venkatappa Art Gallery should be recreated keeping in mind what Bengalureans want," she said.