Background

The Rajpal Khullar Memorial Trust, a Public Charitable Trust, was established as a platform to project contemporary Indian art as well as classical music and dance.

We begin our activities with the opening of an Arts Centre with the aim of extending and expanding it into a Resource Centre. The Centre proposes to establish formal connections with major art Institutions both public and private, national as well as international. Through this exchange, we will attempt to look into the possibilities of academic orientation of artistic practices. Further attempts will be made to complement and encourage artistic pursuits through scholarships, awards and so on to students and young artists in order to facilitate their creative and intellectual growth. We also intend to work towards cultural exchange programmes both within the country and overseas.

In order to achieve such objectives, the Trust has established a Steering Committee comprising five members which will regulate decisions with regard to planning and mounting exhibitions. The members of this committee consisting of artists of international repute, art historians and art aficionados have long been associated with the visual arts and are highly regarded within the artistic community. In addition to these members, the Chairman and Treasurer of the Trust also serve on the committee.

Rajpal Khullar Memorial Trust also runs an Educational Institution - AKSHAR. Set up in 1998, it is an integrated school where children with special needs learn along with regular children.

For The Harrington Street Arts Centre , the word ‘Street’ in the title is all about reaching out to the art lover and building linkages between the art world and the community at large and also breaking down the elitist image of the traditional white-cube gallery space. This Centre aims to enrich the cultural atmosphere of the city and the country by encouraging, promoting, developing and nurturing the creative and aesthetic possibilities inherent within the community through stimulating and relevant art related activities.

We, therefore, aspire to be an institution which will, in many ways, be similar to a museum, not just in terms of the space on offer but the variety and range of our activities. This is a cultural platform not just for the stakeholders of the Centre but all those interested in showcasing significant and inspirational cultural events and making the Centre a place of vibrant cultural activity.

The Physical Space

The Centre was designed by Abacus Designs of Singapore and Australia, headed by Ms. Li Lightbody, regarded as one of the most eminent architectural and design firms working, in particular, with the hotel industry. It covers approximately 7500 sq ft of space and is on Ho Chi Minh Sarani (formerly Harrington Street) in the heart of Calcutta. The building in which the Centre is located is over hundred years old and its charming colonial façade is set off by the ultra-modern chic of its neighbour the Rabindranath Tagore Centre of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations and the stark, minimalist austerity of the American Consulate opposite.