After the city got its first music museum, Bangalore is all set to get what is touted to be India’s first Museum Of Art & Photography {MAP}. Located very close to Cubbon Park, on Kasturba Road, the construction has begun for the building, and if things go well, we could well have this amazing museum ready for us to gawk at by 2020.
Being an art museum, naturally, the architecture of the structure will be under scrutiny too. So top architect Soumitro Ghosh, will be helming the designs, and if his revamp of the Freedom Park is anything to go by, then expect great things. Also part of the committee is Rahul Mehrotra, Professor of Urban Design and Planning at Harvard University, and Mahrukh Tarapor, an expert on museums. Set across a whopping 44,000 square feet, and over four floors, the MAP will have five galleries for exhibitions, a 120-seat auditorium, a library for research purposes, as well as classrooms to educate people about art and photography.
Funded by Abhishek Poddar, also the founder of Tasveer, the art gallery, and head of the Art & Photography Foundation, the museum will even have a restoration laboratory, climate-controlled storage to preserve the world of art and a rooftop garden with sculptures. The massive collection {about 15,000 pieces, we hear}, will range from art and textile to photography and design, beginning from the 12th Century to present times. Oh, 2020, you cannot come soon enough!