Just a few hours to go for our inaugural!

We inaugurate our new gallery and workshop space in a few hours and this post is going to be a rush. The whole team worked hard in the last three days and we spent last night scrubbing the floors of our house. It is right in Kumbharwada, the potters’colony in Dharavi, and on the main road, so cleaning it up was quite a big deal.

There is a lot of excitement about this new house. I suppose we ourselves haven’t quite fully understood the possibilities of this space. It is Dharavi. It is about art. It is about health and gender. This could mean any number of things – this is where Dharavi artists can exhibit their works, this is where artists beyond Dharavi can come and experiment with the tons of unique materials available in Dharavi.

Much thanks to our new project coordinator, Dipesh Thakker, who has been a fantastic events manager. We were conversing about careers on our way back and Dipesh told me that he had a job in finance which he left to do something ‘exactly’ like this. On most days, the truth is, it doesn’t feel like a job. There is sure a lot of pressure but with things like setting up a gallery space or networking with Dharavi people – it feels more like a passion.

These are scattered thoughts just before our inaugural. This is truly our starting point, our platform of stability, a space for experiment and exhibitions. We have put up current and previous artworks on the ground and first floors. And we have truly gone gaga like children with a new toy. Visit our Colour Box this evening 🙂

You Are Invited for Our Inaugural!

Colour Box is our new house!

We have a brand new house right in the potters’ community in Dharavi. Our potter friend, Devanand, is loaning it to us for a couple of years and we are currently in the process of deconstructing and reconstructing it. It is a two-storey house that will become our workshop, office and gallery space and we are so stoked about it! After several discussions, we decided to christen it Colour Box, with a mild unintended pun on Kala Box. We tore down a couple of walls to make space for exhibitions but we are attempting to retain as many of the original details of the house as possible. It has old-world terracotta tiles on the ground floor, ceramic tiles lining the walls, a few stairs leading up as if the upper floor were an attic and a door on the upper floor that opens into nowhere. We are right amidst the winding lanes of Kumbharwada and we are particularly happy to have a space right in the midst of the communities that we work so closely with.

If imagining the house is too much but not enough, do drop in this Sunday for the inaugural programme at 5.00pm.