Bhubaneswar, Sept. 14: An art gallery displaying 60 artworks, including paintings and sculptures by veteran artists of the state, was inaugurated at the Odisha State Museum today.

Inaugurating the gallery, an initiative of the Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi and the state museum, tourism and culture minister Ashok Panda said the aim was to popularise Odisha's cultural heritage.

"The museum will be more vibrant with the introduction of this art gallery. It will be the perfect place to hold shows, seminars and workshops on art, art appreciation and criticism," said the minister.

The gallery has on display artworks by Gopal Kanungo, Muralidhar Talli and Chandrasekhar Rao among others. Apart from acrylic on canvas, there are oil paintings, pattachitra art, sketches and tempera.

"The academy had a number of artworks by noted artists from the state. Many of them are no more. We wanted to bring them before the public so that they get an opportunity to see them and young artists can analyse and take inspiration from them," said secretary of Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi Tarakanta Parida.

The gallery will have a permanent display section to showcase artworks by veteran artists of the state. In another section, a set of collections will be changed and replaced with new ones every month.

"The artworks by some of the veteran artists will be on display all the time. Others will be rotated so that regular visitors have something new to look forward to. This will help young artists to showcase their artworks before a larger audience," added Parida.

The gallery assures visitors to the museum an amiable ambience to enjoy artworks.

"The atmosphere is serene here and the gallery is spacious enough to accommodate a large number of visitors at a time," Parida said.

The state government will also come up with a gallery in the museum dedicated to the life and achievements of Biju Patnaik to commemorate the birth centenary of the leader. On International Museum Day observed recently, two galleries under renovation were opened to the public - the archaeology and natural history sections.

The state, at present, has two government-run art galleries - one is the regional centre of Lalit Kala Akademi and the other is at Buddha Jayanti Park.

The artworks at the gallery will be uploaded digitally on the museum website so that art lovers can take printouts of the works. Three private art galleries - Odisha Modern Art Gallery, Artist Mindz, Subhadra Art Gallery - are functioning from Forest Park, Jaydev Vihar and Tankapani Road, respectively.