Bhubaneswar, July 16: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today inaugurated the state's first art gallery at Buddha Jayanti Park.
Though Odisha is traditionally known for its art and cultural heritage, it took more than 65 years for the successive governments to establish such a facility.
Aptly named Buddha Art Gallery as it is housed inside the park named after the great religious transformer of all times. The 20,000sqft gallery aims to have a permanent display section, consisting of artworks of late artists of Odisha and three other running galleries. The running galleries will organise regular shows of both established and budding artists.
Naveen inaugurated a show of 81 artworks, which included old artworks collected by the Lalit Kala Akademi and two art camps organised in the city in the past one month based on the Nabakalebar theme of the Trinity.
The other government-owned gallery is at Kharavela Nagar. It is under the Union culture ministry and named Regional Lalit Kala Kendra, Bhubaneswar. The regional centre looks after states such as Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. There are several private-owned galleries as well in Bhubaneswar.
Culture minister Ashok Chandra Panda said: "The art gallery will provide a perfect location in the near future as it will have enough space to organise shows, seminars and workshops on art, art appreciation and criticism. There is a plan to have a souvenir shop to sell art-related works, prints of famous artists of the state and publications by the State Lalit Kala Akademi."
While the state government invested Rs 1.47 crore to develop the art centre, an amphitheatre already at the park will also help in organising the art-related events in the future. Last year, the city-based art organisation, Utsha, organised an art camp Art and Ecology at the park.
Culture secretary Arvinda Padhee said: "The permanent gallery's artworks will be uploaded digitally on the akademi website, so that art lovers can take printouts of the works and use them. Prints of such works will also be available at the souvenir shop."
Lalit Kala Akademi president Siba Panigrahi and secretary Tarakanta Parida were also present at the inauguration. Parida said: "The gallery would have a guest house, so that the artists taking part in the future workshops can stay here and work."
A park regular, Ranjan Jena of Niladri Vihar, said: "The park will be more vibrant with this art gallery, and it will hog the limelight."
He, however, said the proposed installation of a giant Buddha statue near the central water body of the park should be taken up urgently, so that it would attract more visitors.
