City Museum
The Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, owes its existence
to the partition of the country in August,1947. It is one of the
premier institution of India with a very rich collection of Gandharan
sculptures, Pahari and Rajasthani miniature paintings. Before the
partition in 1947, the collection of art objects, paintings, sculptures
and decorative arts, were housed in the Central Museum, Lahore the
then capital of Punjab.Of the various multi-dimensional Museums in India, the Government
Museum and Art Gallery at Chandigarh occupies a very distinctive
position for not only its unique collection of the objects, but
also for other reasons as well. Situated in the heart of the city
planned by Le Corbusier, and very close to the city center in beautiful
view of the Shivalik range of mountains, the Museum has a very sprawling
and spread out campus at one side of which is located the Government
College of Art. The Museum building is an attraction in view of
the fact that Le Corbusier himself designed it. The Museum was inaugurated
on the 6th May, 1968 under the initiative and active support of
Late Dr. M.S. Randhawa, renowned connoisseur and patron of art,
and the then Chief Commissioner of Chandigarh. Later a few other
buildings were added in view of the growing need of the Museum's
expansion. The campus in which the Museum is situated is surrounded
with selective trees adding grandeur to the campus. The vast expanse
of the courtyard of the Museum is dotted with some contemporary
sculptures suitable for environmental display.
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