Efforts on to restore Venkatappa Art Gallery by Dasara

The restoration and revamping of the Venkatappa Art Gallery is set to be completed by Dasara this year.

MR Jaishankar, Executive Chairman, Brigade Group, made the emphatic announcement at gallery, during the commencement of the restoration work on Wednesday.

This comes over three- and-a-half months after the Brigade Group’s CSR arm Brigade Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage in September 2023.

With a budget of about Rs 5 crore, the restoration project aims to bring a complete change in the gallery’s state of affairs without changing the skeletal structure of the building.

Changes will include civil repairs such as flooring and lighting, expanding the gallery displays, repairing public amenities and sprucing up the external landscape to create space for public gatherings. 

“There will be space for Venkatappa’s work — the main attraction — and for
KK Hebbar’s work. There will be an exclusive gallery for artists, besides space on the ground floor for workshops and public interaction,” explained Devaraju A, Commissioner, Department of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage.

Restoration work is underway at the museum adjacent to the Venkatappa Art Gallery in Bengaluru on Wednesday. 

HK Patil, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Legislation, and Tourism, expressed the government’s objective to preserve the state’s cultural heritage. 

“There are over 25,000 monuments in the state, of which only 800 are officially notified and only about 500 are protected.

“Over the next five years, we want to notify, protect and restore at least 5,000 monuments in the state, and we request corporates to collaborate with us on a public-private partnership to achieve this goal,” the minister said.