Fulfilling a three-decade-old demand of the artists of the State, Bengaluru will soon have a regional centre of the Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA). The State government has handed over one acre of land to the Akademi to set up the centre at Kalagrama, on the outskirts of the city.
The regional centre of the Akademi will be set up here on the lines of what exists in Odisha, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh.
Though the land was sanctioned in Bengaluru four years ago for this purpose, it was finally handed over on May 2, 2017.
“With physical transfer of land, we have written to the Union Ministry of Culture to accord permission to set up the centre in Bengaluru,” Chi. Su. Krishna Setty, administrator, Lalit Kala Akademi, told The Hindu . Bengaluru will be the sixth regional centre in the country, after Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Garhi (Shimla), Kolkata, and Lucknow. The Bengaluru centre will be serving artists’ community in Telangana, Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala, and Karnataka.
Even before the structure comes up, artists’ community plans to start conducting art workshops and camps in the space allocated to them. “We have asked the Akademi to take control of the land forthwith and fence it. After occupying the space, we will start conducting art workshops, and camps in the open air,” artist Pa.Sa. Kumar said.
Mr. Krishna Setty convened a meeting of artists on May 28 and sought their suggestions on developing the Bengaluru centre differently from already existing centres. “We have suggested to leave more open space to create installations and so on,” artist Suresh Kumar said.
“On getting approval from the Ministry of Culture, we will invite architects to design the centre. The submitted design will be presented to artists to get their approval, besides uploading that on the website. While the Akademi will share 50% of the cost of the building, the Karnataka government has to share the rest,” Mr. Setty said.
The centre, to come up at Kalagrama, will be headed by the regional secretary and have facilities for artists, including graphic and sculpture workshops, painting studio, and reference library, besides art galleries, Mr. Krishna Setty said.
