Makeover mantra

Jamshedpur, May 26: Artists of the state have long rued the absence of an art gallery here, but not any more.

Come July and the works of state artists will adorn the walls of Bengal Club at Sakchi. Club officials said the step was taken to educate the residents of the steel city on art and also promote local talents.

Named Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Art Gallery, it will start on a temporary basis on 400sqft from July and after renovation in October, it will open doors. The renovation of the club is pegged at Rs 4 crore.

“We have talents but very few people to appreciate them. Performing arts is well lauded but visual arts is often overlooked. There are no art galleries in the state and that is the reason why residents know little about it. We will follow the art gallery of the metropolitans for running it,” said Raja Choudhury, the secretary of the Bengal Club.

The art gallery will deal in buying, selling, maintenance of rare art pieces. It will also provide authentication certificates at the time of purchase like other art galleries in the country.

“In the beginning, we are displaying the works of local artists only as residents of Jamshedpur might question the exorbitant price tag of eminent artists like Ganesh Pyne or Paresh Maity. We have to acquaint them with art and then we will bring in the works of veterans but that will depend on the reaction of art lovers of the city,” he said.

The artists are happy with the move. “We may not have Lalit Kala Akademi or art museums here at the beginning slowly and steadily they will set up institutes if people appreciate good work. We have many highly qualified artists who have bagged awards and are well known in the art circle. We are very happy with the initiative and expect other cultural organisations to follow suit,” said C.R. Hembram, a bachelor of fine arts from MS University, Baroda, who currently teaches at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Garhwa.

Thinking on similar lines is Tagore Society, a cultural hub of the city. The society has planned to come up with a gallery where the works of Rabindranath Tagore will be put up for display without any transaction.

The club, which was esta-blished in 1923, is well known for its cultural activities and grand Durga Puja celebrations. But this is the first time that it has come up with such an idea to promote visual arts.