Ambani is expanding her ambit from art collection—known for the annual Harmony Show—to popularising residency programmes at the five-year-old DAKC. The 28-artist residency has drawn the Massachusetts-based museum’s attention. This explains the keen interest of Susan Bean, its India curator, in viewing the art and chatting with the artists, who have spent 30-days at the DAKC.

“The idea behind each of my art endeavours is to popularise Indian art, both locally and globally. Art has the power to bridge gaps that may exist between nations and cultures. This creates dialogue through the strength of a universal visual language,” says Ambani, who has invited artists from across India, the USA, Canada, Japan, France, Brazil and Germany for the one-month residency programme.

Well aware of the rich ancient Indian art tradition, the Peabody’s current focus is on expanding their collection of Contemporary Indian Art. “The approach is to be less provincial and expose America to the variety of Indian work. Our Herwitz collection already has a vast suite of Modern Indian Art. Another gallery is dedicated to regional Indian art and craft from the 19th century and the third gallery looks at art from the Colonial period,” says Bean. She recently curated an exhibition Gateway to Bombay featuring artists like Atul Dodiya,

Nalini Malani,Sudhir Patwardhan and photographer Ketki Seth. She will also be speaking at the Bodhi Art Gallery in Kala Ghoda at 4 pm today.

For the artists at the camp, having access to space, freedom to experiment and abundance of materials have been a dream come true. From senior artists like sculptor Prithpal Ladi, Valsan

Kolleri, Alex Mahrew and Veer Munshi to upcoming names like Uday Vir Singh and Jagannath Panda, the urge to do large experimental works has been met.

“It is very rare that an artist gets so much freedom,” says Panda. Japanese artist Mitsunori Koike agrees. Even in Japan, artists usually have to make do with smaller works due to paucity of funds, he adds.

From the camp different artists will carry home varied experiences. Myrna Balk learnt about ‘listening to stone’ from Japanese artists, while

Canadian Shelley Miller considers this as ‘home coming’. Miller car cake, made of hemp, is highly experimental and Balk’s use of black marble and sandstone is symbolic of a coming together of different economic classes.