Ek Varso

Restoration and Art:

The house was known as house no: 3044 at Desai ni Pol, Ahmedabad. This house was resided by the Mehta Family since 1896. Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation restored the house in late 1990s. This was one of the first restoration projects of AMC. Since 1996, the building is now being used by CHETNA, Centre for Health, Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness. Interestingly, Shri Vijay Shrimali and later many other artists have tried to put this image of the house on canvas. This is where a new era of restoration and putting the walled city on canvas started for Ahmedabad. Since then, many painting exhibitions with the motif of Ahmedabad have taken place over the period of time and especially during the heritage week. Such art exercises are not only for the sake of art, but to revive the colours of the beautiful old city. Inspired from the painting, the city heritage collection introduced a beautifully crafted copper memento. Such initiatives reached out to a larger audience, contributing greatly in the heritage revival process.    

Artist and the City:

The City becomes a habit. The urban living made the city too familiar to notice anything extraordinary about it. People passed by the beautiful heritage buildings everyday in a hurry to reach their offices or schools without noticing them. Thus, people also lost their sense of belonging and their pride in their own city. Thus, it was necessary to renew citizens appreciation through creative eyes. Ahmedabad is a city of a vibrant artist community. Local and international photographers have captured the city. During the World Heritage Festival 2003, the AMC invited painters to capture the city as they see it. 

 

 

 

 

   

                             

 

 

Artists' Impressions: 

In this festival for the first time thirty one artists came together to paint the city. Amit Ambalal Shah, Anant Mehta, Apurva Desai, Arvind Patel, Ashvin Chauhan, Avinash Thaker, Bansi Khatri,Bharat Panchal, Bharat Patni, Bharat Vitalia, Bhavarsinh Pawar, Gajendra Shah, Gayatri Trivedi, Gita Pitroda, Haku Shah, Hindol Bhrambhatt, Jayesh Shukla, Jitu Oghani, Kanti Soni, Kumar Chauhan, Mahendra Parmar, Makarand Vania, Manhar Kapadiya, Milan Desai, Nabibaksh Mansoori, Nayu Mistri, Natu Parikh, Nikita Parikh, Shefali Nayan, VinodPatel and Vrindavan Solanki captured the city as they saw it. 

Sketching the Gates:

In 2009, Catharsis Gallery organized an exhibition on the gates of Ahmedabad sketched by Shri Natu Mistri. These sketches were in black and white. 

Various Other Art Projects:

Many Such programmes and exhibitions have taken place. In 2007, an artists' walk, workshop and exhibition on the paintings of the walled city of Ahmedabad was coordinated by Shri Arvind Vakani in 2007. In the same year a discussion on "Role of Art in Conservation" was being held at the House of MG by Theatre and Media Centre. The old city of Ahmedabad also attracted many photographers. Photographers have tried to capture the mystery of the heritage on the frames. In 2007, one such photography exhibition on the Havelis of Ahmedabad happened at the Green House. Shri T. S. Radhawa and other photographers exhibited their photographs.






 

Paintings Influenced from the Folk Stories of Ahmedabad:

In 2010, Bhairavi Modi exhibited paintings influenced from various folk stories of Ahmedabad.