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Cowasji Jehangir Hall
The Cowasji Jehangir Hall is a museum of modern art and was part of the Institute of Science prior to 1996. The hall was built in 1911 by George Wittet , who was a British Architect and it took about 19 lakhs for the construction, part of which was contributed by CowasjiJehangir.
The museum hall is situated in Mumbai’s Colaba area and it is an important tourism spot of the day.
History
In 1911 this famous Hall was constructed, named after Sir CowasjiJehangir because major part of funding was done by him, while the rest of the funds were given by another two philonthrophists of Mumbai, Sir Jacob Sassoon and Sir Currimbhoy Ibrahim.
In the initial days, this was the only Hall available at Colaba area and the Hall was busy and well maintained till 1950s. However, in the later period, new auditoriums were built in Mumbai, which fact made this Hall unsought for, at one point of time this venue came under the threat of different kinds of uses, making are lovers getting upset. It is at that time that National Art Gallery came in the picture to make it a functional museum.
It took almost 12 years for the renovation and the cost of renewing the building and architechturetouched 3.5crores, however, when the work was over, the art world had the benefit of an exhibition hall comparable to the best halls in the Globe, giving good light, ventilation and expansive area. Rightly, the National Art Gallery took possession of the space to establish their art service at Mumbai.
Renovaton of the Hall
To make the hall an art gallery, lot of efforts had to be taken. Its horse-shoe shaped balconies had to be modified for making it a Gallery compatible space. Likewise, improving the floor area comparable to Royal Albert Hall of London was a challenging job, while it was a wonderful design of the Delhi architect RomyKhosla that made this job possible, with five exhibition galleries established each of them having pathways to reach from one to the other, apart from an auditorium for lectures and seminars and space for a library. The new construction included space for running an office for administering the establishment and a Cafeteria for the convenience of visitors.
Collections&Exhibitions
Most of the collections are modern contemporary art immaterial, which are possessions of the National Art Gallery and large number of items of artefacts and paintings are exhibited, besides visiting the four level galleries of the Museum itself will be a pleasure to the tourist.
How to Reach
Colaba is part of Mumbai and it is an island space known as Candil during Portuguese times in the 16th century. Colaba can be reached by road, rail and air, Mumbai’s ChhatrapatiShivaji International Airport being closer by 28 km and to reach Santa Cruz from Colaba it takes an hour’s drive.
Colaba is in about 3 km from Churchgate Railway Station of Mumbai. Likewise, ChhatrapatiShivaji Terminus is 5 km away.
Number of buses ply to Colaba from various locations in Mumbai.
Timings and Ticket Prices
The Art Gallery is open to public from 10 am to 5 pm on all days of the week, except Mondays which are weekly holidays.
Photo Gallery