‘The Mysore Mail’ carried a photograph of a photo exhibition at Kalamandir’s  Suchitra Arts Gallery. Photo artist whose work was on show is Mr A Shantappa, arts teacher of St. Philomena’s high school. He was seen conducting dignitaries, including wildlife photographer Mr S Thippeswamy, around the gallery. I had occasion to meet the other day Mr V G Sridhar, who has a passion for pictures depicting facets of life in Mysore. He also paints and designs posters and book-covers.

How often Sridhar and Shantappa get to put up their work on show? How many people get to see them?  Wouldn’t they like their photographs to be seen more often, by a lot more people ? Sridhar’s response: ‘Not often’, ‘Not many’, and ‘Who wouldn’t?’

His answers set us thinking , why not ‘liberate’ arts from the confines of galleries and take them to streets, where more folks could see them, more often. The practice of weekend artists showing their work on pavement galleries has been in vogue in many cities. Sridhar plans to talk about it with his photographer friends.

The idea is to persuade authorities to designate a suitable public space where local photographers and other artists can display their work on weekends. The pavement arts show can be promoted as a tourist attraction. Venue?  The tree-lined boulevard that made news a while ago springs to mind. Ideas,  anyone?