Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri today pitched for taking up public art works on a large scale in Delhi by making it a component of all development plans and architectural designs in the national capital. He said public art works not only enhances the aesthetics of public spaces but also have the potential to boost tourism. He said guidelines were issued in 1970s by then Ministry of Works & Housing to earmark 2 per cent of the project cost for art works, providing opportunity to integrate public art with development projects. “Unfortunately, the same was not utilised properly and we hardly see any notable work of public art at various places in Delhi,” the housing and urban affairs minister said in his address a gathering here on Public Art in Delhi-A Roundtable.
Puri said the Delhi Urban Art Commission (DUAC), established to provide advice on aesthetic development of the national capital, has come up with new guidelines on public art which would help in encouraging integration of art work with public projects. “The time has come to plan for public art work in Delhi on a large scale by making it a component of all developmental plans and architectural designs,” he said, and added that there was no reason why creative public art should not be an essential component for all infrastructure projects in Delhi.
He said India has a vast reservoir of talent in the form of creative artistes, sculptors, painters and designers, who have made their name the world over by designing such public art, whenever they have been offered an opportunity to do so. “We need to tap this vast potential to beautify Delhi in the first instance and thereafter carry the movement forward to other cities and towns of the country,” he said.
