The cultural heart of Bhopal, the Charles Correa designed campus of Bharat Bhavan was part of an Indira Gandhi-led initiative to set up centres for arts in state capitals, but this was was the only noteworthy one. The famous architect, Charles Correa, designed this centre for visual and performing arts in harmony with its hillside location leading down to the lake. Inaugurated in 1982, it has made Bhopal one of the major hubs for art and culture activities in India. Check out announcements of upcoming events both in and outside the city in the foyer. The buildings house workshops, theatres, exhibition galleries, studios, libraries, indoor and outdoor auditoriums, and other facilities. A permanent exhibition of modern Indian paintings and sculpture occupies a split-level gallery with examples of the ‘Company School of Painting’ commissioned during the British Raj for those `back home’ in Britain depicting the beauty of the sun-bathed subcontinent. One of the most notable features of Bharat Bhavan is a gallery devoted exclusively to adivasi art, with pieces collected from tribal areas of Central India. The talent scouts at the centre take pride in having found the remarkable Gond painter, Jangarh Singh Shyam, who has been featured in many books including Mark Tully’s. The collection has masks, terracottas, woodcarvings, ritual objects, utensils, but the centre has given very little background information on the tribal groups as it is mainly focussed on the pieces as the works of art rather than as folk arts.