Turning Delhi into a canvas: Open air art festival begins

In 1903, tens of thousands of Delhi residents streamed into the leafy grounds of Qudsia Bagh to view an art exhibition staged as part of the Delhi Durbar, hosted by Viceroy George Curzon.

- Aaditya Khatwan

Arts and crafts from across India were laid out on the park's sprawling lawns, presented through the colonial lens of the time.

“The idea was to pick what the British saw as the best examples of Indian art and craft and display them there. It was done in a very colonial way, but it was also something new, and a lot of people showed up,” says historian Swapna Liddle, standing in the same park more than a century later, leading a heritage waik on the morning of September 6.

The walk marked the opening of Delhi Art Gallery (DAG)’s maiden edition of “The City as a Museum festival”, a citywide programme that runs from September 6 to 21. With free entry, the festival seeks to reframe how art is experienced, moving it out of gallery walls and into public spaces,