Kavitha Srinivasa/ENS

Bangalore, Apr 3: Janapada Loka, a 15-acre folk cultural centre situated on the Bangalore-Mysore highway, will have a new museum with an interpretation centre exhibiting the folk history of Karnataka.

Right now, the search is on for an architect and a curator who will conceptualise a world-class museum in the next 18 months.

"The tourism department has granted Rs 1 crore for the project. Since the museum is on the Bangalore-Mysore circuit, it has the potential to evolve into a tourism destination.

Last year, Mysore had around 40 lakh tourists and it is hoped that half of this tourist flow would visit the museum," said I M Vittala Murthy, Secretary to Kannada and Culture, Information and Tourism, Government of Karnataka.

The museum would also include a souvenir shop and a restaurant serving Karnataka cuisine. “We are open to showcasing rural weddings as we intend to develop culture tourism,” added Murthy.

Janapada Loka or Folk-Culture World, a subsidiary of the Karnataka Janapada Parishat, is situated in Ramanagar district. The 15-acre complex, which was started in 1994 by the late HL Nagegowda, former deputy commissioner, has an art gallery, an open-air theatre, a studio and a museum.

“Janapada Loka is already a tourist attraction and we aim to make it more attractive to national and international tourists by arranging live folk performing arts during weekends, join hands with the department of tourism and private tour operators, to include Janapada Loka as a stopover point in their tourist circuits,” said Indira Balakrishna, managing trustee, Karnataka Janapada Parishat.

While the thrust is to build a big new museum, the existing one which comprises photographs, an audio and video documentation of performances, fairs, festivals, rituals, farming-related techniques and objects associated with rural life, underwent a renovation and opened to the public in January. Jackfruit Research and Design Pvt. Ltd, a city-based firm working in art history, executed it.

“The objects were brought together under the open-shelf format which gave scope for change in display. The information panels and their fixtures were also planned with the same view,” said Dr Annapurna Garimella, director, Jackfruit Research and Design Pvt Ltd.

“Jackfruit designed an information and display system which allows the institution to take it to another level at anytime without involving a design company (and therefore saving finances).” A bilingual interpretation of objects was part of the programme.

On his part, architect Ceejo Cyriac of Little River Architects, devised a movement pattern for the objects.

“Primarily it was about space planning. We had to create many pockets of spaces to house various categories of display objects and flexibility in movement,” said Cyriac.