Festival Theme
The festival journeys through visits to the iconic Qudsia Bagh gardens and an exhibition titled Sair-e-Dilli: Chronicles of Change, which surveys the city's rich heritage of built forms and structures - from the Sultanate and Mughal periods to Lutyens' Delhi - through the eyes of travellers and connoisseurs.
From here, the programme leads up to the multiple traditions of culture-making in the city after 1947: visits to artists' colonies, studio and performance spaces, and Embassy architecture within diplomatic enclaves. It considers private collections that can reshape canonical hierarchies of art, and neighbourhoods that have incubated institutionalised identities for Indian modern art and theatre, such as Mandi House - or given rise to popular book bazaars around prominent publishing houses, such as Daryaganj.
The edition also revisits archival copies of popular magazines that became platforms for showcasing and critiquing the emergent idioms of art in independent India - magazines that frequently gave rise to feelings of admiration and joy, as well as confusion and incomprehension.
Events and Programmes
Fourteen ways to walk through delhii
Walks, talks, screenings and site visits running through 6-12 September 2026. Each programme requires separate registration.
Accompanying Exhibition
A Treasury of Life
The term ‘Company painting’ was coined some seventy years ago to describe works made by Indian artists working for European patrons in India – typically employees of the various foreign trading companies – in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Early enthusiasts of the genre were few: most people thought it was too late or ‘decadent’ to be considered as good court art, and too early or ‘primitive’ to be considered as modern. Recent exhibitions and publications have raised awareness and appreciation of this exceptional phase of Indian art, and this exhibition contributes to that purpose.
Artwork highlights
A Closer Look at the Collection
Discover remarkable artworks, stories, and perspectives from the DAG collection.
Featured Articles
From the DAG
Journal & the Press
Essays and reporting on the histories, people, and places that shape this edition.
Journal
View More →
Press
View More →Taj Mahal without the crowds? This Delhi exhibition is your chance
The Many Moods of the Taj
In Amrita Sher-Gil’s rare sculpture, the secret strength of tigers and women at rest
The Taj speaks for itself | At DAG’s new ‘The Mute Eloquence of the Taj Mahal’ exhibition
12 new art shows in India we’re excited about this November
The soul beneath the stone
About the festival
The City as a Museum is DAG’s annual art and heritage festival. It began in Kolkata to connect artworks and objects in the DAG collection, and inside museums, galleries and archives, to the world outside.
By visiting historic spaces across the city and beyond—from artists’ homes and studios to centres of craft production and spaces of arts patronage—we have been able to animate the larger histories behind the artworks we see in galleries and exhibitions, making our collection accessible in new ways. Exploring the work of artists like Abanindranath Tagore, Chittaprosad, Ganesh Haloi, and lesser-known artists who paint ‘shoras’, create metro mosaics and ‘sandesh.’
These programmes connected such artistic practices to the wider history of colonialism, reform movements, patronage, art education, craft and music.
In this way, not only have we presented ways to experience art as an integral part of our shared legacy but have also seen the city around us through fresh perspectives. After four successful editions in Kolkata, the programme travelled to Mumbai in 2025 starting with the exhibition ‘Shifting Visions: Teaching Modern Art at the Bombay School’ at the historic Sir J. J. School of Art. Through a diverse set of programmes, we explored the lesser-known narratives of art and the city; travelling to Elephanta Caves, the iconic Alfred theatre and the milieu of Bhendi bazaar to learn about the life and art of artists like Tyeb Mehta and M. F. Hussain and their connections to sites in the city. Owing to the overwhelming responses, The City as a Museum will make its way to Delhi in September 2025.
A Festival made of the city itself
The City as a Museum, Edition I celebrates the legacies of Bengal Art on World Heritage Week. A travelling festival it has a host of programmes in various formats like heritage walks, music and workshops. It will explore diverse notions of our heritage and its links to Bengal Art by travelling to various sites to build these connections.
Places
Gallery sales are privileged information but, nevertheless, reflect a demand for high quality art among the most discerning connoisseurs. We, at DAG, have been fortunate to see some of the finest examples of nineteenth and twentieth century art pass through our hands and into the notable collections of institutions and private collectors
Places
Gallery sales are privileged information but, nevertheless, reflect a demand for high quality art among the most discerning connoisseurs. We, at DAG, have been fortunate to see some of the finest examples of nineteenth and twentieth century art pass through our hands and into the notable collections of institutions and private collectors
Upcoming edition
Mumbai 2026
Edition No 1
15 – 20 October 2026