The Socratus Way of Convening, Part 3: with Gallery OneTwo on Public Arts

Who should take initiative for public arts?

In the centre of Ooty, there is a side street from the beautiful Charing Cross junction where there used to be a public toilet. The city PWD decided to build a new paid toilet next to the public one and the original was abandoned. Still, people kept using it to save the little money charged by the paid toilet. Over the years it ended up in such dereliction that it was difficult for passer-bys to brave the stench of the place with its overflowing conditions.

In an incredible turn of events, P Madhavan an artist, curator and activist moved to Ooty and upon seeing this, decided to change things around. He with his team convinced the city officials to give them the toilet in the present condition and they turned it into an public art gallery appropriately named Gallery OneTwo.

Gallery OneTwo formed in 2018, and since then it has been continuously doing public programs with artists, environmentalists, children and multi-diverse locals and visitors to Ooty with different arts exhibitions, talks, workshops, book readings etc. It really revitalised the space and turned things around from a sore spot in the city to its pride.

This space is run solely by the generous support of the people with their kind time, money, social support and such, and as you can imagine the complexities of running a public space with no funding or a regular team for a period of time it can bear the fruits of such a transformation.

We must take pride in our places to bring light.

Over the past couple of years, due to a lack of regular support mechanism, Gallery OneTwo has become a bit of a unused space, and they invited us in 2024 to engage in a long-term project to activate the space, following which Srinivas and Diya from Socratus went to Ooty to get the project started. We connected with Shobana Chandrashekar, a longtime resident of Ooty who is keeping the space running with some activities like music classes and such, and we exchanged the understanding that there was a critical need for support and team to create value for transformative initiatives, such as a public art gallery with free access to the public in this case.

We felt that public arts must build initiative in a participatory way. Through the Gallery OneTwo network we connected with local artists Sangeetha Ravi, Shruti Ramesh, Rohit Ramesh, Ravi, Suresh and others and together we first restored and cleaned up the gallery and the outside area. We then curated a selection of “Climate Recipes” from the previous editions that were relevant to the ecosystem of Ooty. Then together we rendered the selected recipes on the walls of the gallery. Sangeetha Ravi and Shruti Ramesh also painted a mural of the rare Neelakurinji flowers in Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu. “Known for carpeting the hillsides in a stunning purple-blue hue, these flowers bloom only once every 12 years, making their appearance a much-anticipated phenomenon.”

Over the years as we have interacted, facilitated and participated in various public arts projects, we have witnessed intelligence inherent in all life forms and everyone, looking for opportunities to emerge. These opportunities need to be nurtured with care.

There are recipes in all of us, both lived and acquired.The task is to unearth them beyond the existing barriers of knowledge dissemination.

“Make your own climate recipes” is a growing archive of engaging with, solutions and sharing creative ideas with each other as form of recipe exchange and archival mechanism. Everyone visiting the exhibition is invited to interact with the recipes, and share their own, with the public.

With the efforts of the team of Ooty this exhibition has been running since then, as they program different events and forms of engagement with people, learning about nature, environment and being stewards of places we inhabit.

Recently they concluded a multicultural event there with children from The Blue Mountain School. As the children engaged with and coloured the recipes, they connected with the issues around them and it inspired them to create and activate their own recipes.

A Day of Art & Imagination!
Our Grade 6 & 8 students embarked on a vibrant journey to Art Gallery One, Two, Ooty — intrigued, inspired, and brimming with creativity. They delved into process natural colour extraction to paint the drawings of the "CLIMATE RECIPES" exhibition on the walls of Gallery One Two, curated and relayed by artists Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi, Srinivas Mangipudi and Diya Shah. They also dove into a lively reading session by Jenny Pinto, the author of " The magical everything "- a book that inspired big thoughts and bold ideas. Art, teamwork, and tons of fun made this trip unforgettable!

The public themselves are responsible for public arts.

In a society that has become complex and busy, it is essential to design and potentialise spaces that allow for the social fabric to be woven. We all understand the need of a social fabric, but how does one weave that fabric?

The traditional forms of social fabric weaving was rooted in our religious or social-cultural rituals and gathering for events and celebrations. In the light of the new hyper-connected realities and complex new challenges we live in current times, we need equitable and egalitarian spaces that keep planetary well-being in centre and allow for our collectiveness to emerge.

We must share time in this co-creation. Gallery OneTwo is one such opportunity where out the sheer will of the public and the deep love and respect for places we live, we want to make them better for everyone around us.

Shobhana Chandrashekar inspiring the next generation with story of Gallery OneTwo’s transformation.

We need your support to make more Gallery OneTwos everywhere.