The Cowasji Jehangir Hall is a museum of modern art and was part of the Institute of Science prior to 1996. The hall was built in 1911 by

George Wittet George Wittet (1878-1926) was a Scottish architect who worked mostly in Mumbai, India. Biography George Wittet was born in Blair Atholl, Scotland in 1878. He studied architecture with a Mr. Heiton of Perth, Scotland, and worked in Edinburgh ...

and funded by

Cowasji Jehangir Sir Cowasji Jehangir, 2nd Baronet, (16 February 1879 – 17 October 1962) was a prominent member of the Bombay Parsi community. He was the son of Sir Jehangir Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney, 1st Bt. (1853–1934) and grand-nephew of Sir Cowasji ...

. It is located in Colaba area of

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

History

In 1911, Cowasji Jehangir Hall was constructed, named after

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

because major part of funding was done by him, while the rest of the funds were given by another two philanthropists of Mumbai, Sir Jacob Sassoon and Sir Currimbhoy Ibrahim. In the initial days, this was the only Hall available at Colaba area and the Hall was busy and well maintained till the 1950s. However, in the later period, new auditoriums were built in Mumbai, which fact made this Hall unsought for, at one point of time this venue came under the threat of different kinds of uses, making art lovers upset. It is at that time that National Art Gallery came in the picture to make it a functional museum. In 1996, the

National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai was opened to the public in 1996. It hosts various exhibitions and art collections of famous artists, sculptors and different civilizations. It is situated in the Cowasji Jehangir Hall, near Regal Cinema ...

was set up in the building.

References

Cowasji Jehangir Hall
Buildings and structures in Mumbai Museums in Mumbai Buildings and structures completed in 1911 Art museums and galleries in India {{India-museum-stub