We are delighted to announce a public art initiative titled "Mumbai Billboard-Bus shelter project" in collaboration with MCGM, the Urban Heritage Committee of Rotary Club of Bombay (RCB) and Priyasri Art Gallery. The project envisages to revitalize the creative spirit of the city through the announcement of the prestigious designation bestowed upon Mumbai as the UNESCO Creative Film City. Bestowing Mumbai with a prestigious honour is indeed a big achievement! We did like to announce through a way that would receive an equally overwhelming response from our beloved Mumbaikars. After all, this award is a tribute to every Mumbaikar! Mumbaikars will experience 15 billboards on the buzzing street of South Mumbai from Mantralay to Worli sea-face to Nariman-Point, where 15 bus shelters will turn into 15 alternative art spaces, featuring works of 15 established and young artists whose lives have been carved in the city of Mumbai. Another exciting feature for this public art project will be a QR code, which will exist on the bus shelters, which the onlooker can scan and take the art home. Aim of ‘Mumbai Billboard-Bus shelter project’: This project shall not only announce this award but will also be an art installation that will acknowledge the poetic spirit present in every one of us—the spirit reconnects an otherwise divided world. The Exhibition is installed and ongoing on the streets of Mumbai.
History proves that art and culture have aided in restoring the peace and stability of society. And this public art installation, interacting with every Mumbaikar on the street, will hopefully reinforce their indestructible never giving up spirit. Mumbaikars have persevered through various trials, including the current pandemic, but they have never given up fighting for peace, harmony, and joy. In a way, the current calamity has indirectly buttressed the „many in body, one in mind‟ spirit of the city dwellers. Art in Mumbai has various formats ranging from commemorative sculptures to iconic murals on the façade of eminent buildings of the business district. Though the public engagements with art have enhanced in recent years, viewing, and experiencing art remains to be a niche affair for laymen. Making contemporary art accessible would be possible if the art is brought into the domain of daily commuters. The strength of Mumbai‟s industriousness lies in its working-class that remains to connect with art being immersed in their formidable duty of running the city tirelessly.
Participating Artists
Al-Qawi Nanavati
2. Anant Joshi
3. Baiju Parthan
4. Bose Krishnamachari
5. Brinda Miller
6. Meera Devidayal
7. Nayanaa Kanodia
8. Nuru Karim
9. Priyanka D‟souza
10. Sooni Taraporevala
11. Sunil Padwal
12. T.V. Santhosh
13. Tanya Singh
14. Teja Gavankar
15. Vikram Bawa
Site of ‘Mumbai Billboard-Bus shelter project’: The buzzing south Bombay Bus Shelters- across 15 sites from Mantralay to Worli sea face to Nariman-Point. Collaborators for the ‘Mumbai Billboard-Bus shelter project’: The outreach is initiated by the Urban Heritage Committee of Rotary Club of Bombay (RCB) and supported by MCGM in collaboration with Priyasri Art Gallery. Timeline of the past Billboard Projects around the world: The first billboards were invented in the 1830s in Europe, to advertise circus acts. The 1860s saw a major shift in billboard advertising. In 1889, the Paris Expo revealed the first-ever twenty-four sheet billboard format, which became the standard format for billboards across the world. Today, Billboards showcase public art for a capitalist society that turns billboards into public art sites thus beautifying the urban and metro cities. In recent times in Los Angeles, many non-profit organisations have hosted a series of “open-air exhibitions” on LA‟s billboards. The goal is two-fold: To help emerging and underrepresented artists break through traditional career bottlenecks by raising their profile with the public and the arts community, and to bring art to city streets making it as accessible as the numerous billboards we view every day. Al fresco, making contemporary art is at its most accessible. This project thus questions the inquisitiveness of the laymen, standing in the circle of an air-locked space, viewing the floating artworks, divorced from the context of their making and the errors accumulated in their daily life.
About Priyasri Art Gallery:
Founded in 2004, Priyasri Art Gallery has been extremely responsive to the evolving language of art and nurturing a gamut of artistic practices and expression. The gallery is dedicated to its role of exhibiting modern, contemporary and experimental artworks; besides focusing on showcasing young artists, we also represent more established artists like Akbar Padamsee and masters like Jogen Chaudhury. Priyasri Art Gallery also provides artists with a studio facility in the art hub of India – Baroda. Called AQ@Priyasri, the artist studio in Baroda has been providing studio space and housing for young artists since 2003, and has also launched a separate printmaking practice.
About the Gallery Space
In the bustling Mumbai midtown art space, Priyasri Art Gallery is a cozy 2500 sq. feet contemporary art gallery neatly nested on the seafront in Madhuli, Worli. Its 7x30 feet French windows look out onto a stunning view of the Arabian Sea that shapes the identity of the city.
About The Founder
Priyasri Patodia has a B.S.C in Textiles from Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda, Gujarat. She has a diploma in Hindustani vocal music from Kirana Gharana. She has completed training in sculpture under Jagannath Panda, M.S.U, Baroda, Gujarat. She has completed a certificate course in Philosophy and International Marketing at the Harvard Summer School in Cambridge, Boston. She has received a Certificate in Human Resources from the National Training Laboratory, in Washington, U.S.A. She has a Certificate in Marketing from Northwestern University in Chicago, U.S.A.
In 2003, she established an art center for painting and printmaking in Baroda called AQ@Priyasri. In 2004, Priyasri Patodia established Priyasri Art Gallery in Mumbai. A recent project in April 2019 that Priyasri was involved in was the Façade and Landscape Lighting project for the CSMVS Museum in Mumbai. This large-scale lighting project was initiated by the director general of the museum, Mr. Sabyasachi Mukherjee, and it was executed by The Rotary Club of Bombay (RCB) under suggestion of The Environment Committee which is chaired by Ms. Priyasri Patodia.
LOCKDOWN DIARIES
Priyasri Patodia was effectively able to support NGO's - WSD, AMTM, PAWS, IDA for feeding the strays because due to the lock down the strays were not able to find food and people were not able to go out and feed them. She will continue to do so until the lockdown ends. She got installed as a Chairperson for the Environment Committee 2020-2021 for the Rotary Club of Bombay.
She has undertaken to work for :
- Smile Foundation to support the contract sanitation workers who do the dirtiest of the works like picking up medical waste, going down the drains and picking up garbage from residential areas and hospitals.
- The second project she has taken up this year is for working with Chirag Rural Development Foundation which is a rural integrated programme aimed at lighting villages inIndia through Solar Power to make the
About Rotary Club Of Bombay:
The Rotary Club of Bombay (RCB), which came into existence on 19th March 1929, is India's premiere Rotary Club and has been in the forefront of community service activities for over 90 years. Chartered with just 38 Members, today it has more than 320 Members and is among the oldest and largest Rotary clubs in Asia.
The late J.R.D Tata, Aditya Birla, Nani Palkhivala and Dhirubhai Ambani were Honorary members of RCB. Today, on its prestigious list of Honorary members, there are eminent personalities such as Adi Godrej, Ajay Piramal, Anand Mahindra, Deepak Parekh, Keshub Mahindra, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Laxmi Mittal, Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, Mrs. Rajashree Birla, Rahul Bajaj and Uday Kotak.
RCB contributes substantially to the community by supporting a number of educational, medical, environmental and vocational activities that impact the lives of the underprivileged and disadvantaged people in and around Mumbai.
Since its inception, Rotary has been driven by its commitment to community service. RCB directly impacts men, women and children, every year, influencing thousands of lives, through more than 30 committees engaged in various avenues of service. Every rupee that RCB spends reaches the beneficiary multiplied several fold, as it leverages, in addition to the money, the value of time spent by the Rotarians and their partners in service.
RCB takes justifiable pride in the work done by its following flagship projects:
In Talwada, a rural hamlet about 130 kms from Mumbai :
the Pherozeshah R. Vakil Eye Centre which has been serving the community for more than 4 decades; and
The Ajit Deshpande Medical Centre (ADMC), which was established in 1999, has served over 750,000 patients since inception. ADMC provides completely free healthcare in numerous specialties like tuberculosis, dental surgery and pathology to adivasis and farmers in Talwada and the Dahanu area.
the newly established maternal and child care ward.
the Anusaya Devi Taparia Junior College which is newly refurbished by RCB.
The path-breaking Bhavishya Yaan (BY) programme which is run by RCB in 6 municipal schools in Mumbai has even been replicated by some other clubs in the Rotary District. –as one of RCB’s most lauded and successful projects over the past 10 years, BY has benefited thousands of children. Speak to any child in the various Municipal Schools across Mumbai and they will tell you the hope and joy this literacy program has brought them. BY provides after school computer and English language skills to under-privileged children, dozens of who have gone on to postgraduate degrees.
Project Anand Yaan - bringing joy to over 120 senior citizens at 2 Anand Yaan centres, in Byculla and Dadar, RCB is dedicated to holistic eldercare centres, because we believe our elder population, on whose backs this country was built, deserves love, respect and a safety net.
Our Urban Heritage projects, in collaboration with The Asiatic Society of Mumbai, include the construction and renovation of two conservation laboratories, restoration and digitization of old and valuable books, manuscripts and maps. Art, musical and cultural performances are organised at the historical Durbar Hall.
Established an Integrated Village Development in Gumbadpada and Warghadpada, in Mokhada Taluka of Palghar District, Maharashtra, by setting up Solar Hub to pull water, store the same in tanks to serve the villages’ irrigation needs and provide safe drinking water as also solar power to light their homes and facilitate education.
Our other Projects include the Vocational Training Centers and the Night Study Centres in various parts of the city, providing employment opportunities and educational facilities to the underprivileged.
Also in continuous existence have been committees working towards Women Empowerment, Healthcare and Medical Services, improving the Environment and Water Resources, Solar Lighting, Animal Welfare and assistance to Cancer Patients.
RCB is proud to state that 100% of the donation amounts are utilised towards the cause, as all administrative expenses are borne by our Club members.
Priyasri Art Gallery Social Media Handles:
Facebook: Priyasri Art Gallery
Instagram: @priyasriartgallery
Twitter: @artgallery42
Linkedin: Priyasri Art Gallery
Hashtag : #priyasriartgallery
-Mrs. Priyasri Patodia
Founder, Priyasri Art Gallery, Worli, Mumbai
& AQ@ Priyasri - The Artist Studio, Vadodara
Chairperson, Urban Heritage Committee, Rotary Club of Bombay, Mumbai
