Intro: Mysore District In-charge Minister V. Sreenivasa Prasad will inaugurate the “Smt. Ramabai Govinda Rao Open Air Auditorium” at Ganabharathi premises in Kuvempunagar on Sunday, 7th September at 10 am. The foundation stone for this Auditorium, built in memory of Smt. Ramabai Govinda Rao, the mother of Industrialist M. Jagannath Shenoy of Mangalore Ganesh Beedi Works, was laid on August 11, 2013, by Shenoy himself. On the occasion, donor Jagannath Shenoy and danseuse Dr. Vasundhara Doraswamy will be felicitated. MP Pratap Simha, MLA M.K. Somashekar, MLC G. Madhusudhan and Corporator K.V. Mallesh will be the guests of honour. Ganabharathi President Dr. C.G. Narasimhan will preside. To mark the event, a souvenir titled Rangabharathi will also be released. Here we publish an article to trace the 35-year-long journey of Ganabharathi…
It was thirty-five years ago that Ganabharathi was founded in Mysore, the Cultural Capital of Karnataka, for the promotion of Performing Arts. In these long years, many connoisseurs of art and culture from different walks of life have given their wholehearted support both in cash and in kind towards this end.
For an institution to establish its identity and carry on its objectives without hindrance it needs a permanent place of its own. With this in mind, a suitable site was acquired by Ganabharathi in 1980. In due course the now familiar landmark of Kuvempunagar, Veene Seshanna Bhavana, named after the legendary veena maestro of Mysore, Veene Seshanna (1852-1926) rose in that location and was inaugurated on Oct. 26, 1991. The Bhavana has an acoustically treated auditorium with a seating capacity of 250. Soon sound system, emergency power generator and such other facilities were added. Ganabharathi also started a School of Music and Dance in 1992.
Every year Ganabharathi conducts nearly 50 programmes of music, dance, drama, yakshagana etc., at Veene Seshanna Bhavana in addition to a number of cultural events by different cultural organisations and scores of schools of Mysore.
In recent times a need for an additional auditorium was felt in view of increasing demand and it was resolved to put to use the space adjacent to the Bhavana by constructing an Open Air Auditorium. Thanks to M. Jagannath Shenoy, the philanthropist, connoisseur of art and renowned industrialist of Mysore, who provided financial support for the construction of the Auditorium. The tender for the same was awarded to K.C. Nanda Kumar, the renowned building contractor of Mysore. M.S. Vijayashankar, the Architect of the entire project, provided his services without accepting any fee.
In addition to the contribution from Jagannath Shenoy, several other philanthropists of Mysore too have contributed generously towards various works connected with the project such as paving the foreground with interlocking tiles, building a bridge to establish connection with the existing road, providing sound and lighting arrangements, stage props, electrification etc. Among others, MLC G. Madhusudan, Dr. M.S. Bhaskar, Dr. Pundalik Herle, Dr. K. Subrahmanya, Kaveribai, H.V. Rajeev, Nagesh Rao, D.T. Prakash and art patron K.V. Murthy deserve special mention in this connection. H. Janardhan (Janni), Director of Rangayana, gave useful suggestions for design of the stage and stage props.
Ganabharathi has expressed its gratitude to all those who have provided invaluable support both in cash and kind for the implementation of this project
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / September 03rd, 2014