Will offer free space to set up art gallery at Mahatma Phule museum, says MP Girish Bapat

NEWLY ELECTED MP Girish Bapat has proposed that he will work towards offering a part of the Mahatma Phule Museum on Ghole Road, free of cost, to set up an art gallery.

Speaking at the inauguration of ‘Venus Art Fest 2019’ held at Balgandharva Rangmandir Kaladalan, Bapat said the paintings looked “lively and all of them had a message to convey”.

“These paintings reveal different emotions, sentiments and languages. Pune is a great place for cultural, art and educational activities and we should uplift it further. For that, we want to dedicate a part of the sangrahalaya for a permanent art gallery, where artists will get a chance to display their talent,” he said.

The exhibition will be held till June 10 and entry to this three-day event will be open and free for all between 11 am and 7.30 pm on all days.

For the city’s art lovers, the fest will showcase various art forms such as pencil drawing, charcoal painting, crayon painting, oil pastel painting, sculptures and much more. The exhibition is being held to mark Venus Trader’s 45th anniversary and the organisers have planned to hold the fest every year.

Surendra Karamchandani of Venus Traders has organised this event that includes paintings of 45 veteran artists including the legendary Ravi Paranjape, Murli Lahoti, Raosaheb Gurav, Shobha Patki, Manjiri More, Snehal Page, Ravi Deo, Milind Mulik, Dinkar Jadhav, Jayprakash Japtap, Pandurang Tathe, and Aditya Shirke.

Speaking at the event, Paranjape said, “In earlier times, art was appreciated by monarchs and kings but nowadays importance is given only to Bollywood and cricket. Art should be encouraged and every artist should get a chance to display their work.”

The artists felicitated at the function included Lahoti, Jitendra Sutar, Gopal Wakode, Dr Avadhut Atre, Dr Milind Dhobley, Priyamvada Pawar and Dr Subhash Pawar for their contribution. The second day of the exhibition from June 9 is scheduled as a painting activity for children from 11 am to 1 pm followed by a live demonstration of a painting by a group of artists.