mumbai if you stroll around the grounds of the chhatrapati shivaji maharaj vastu sangrahalaya cmsvs youll notice five curious contraptions made of sheets of cloth tied to short bamboo poles and suspended over clay pots and buckets these are traditional rain catchers they are the handiwork of visiting british artist liz ballard the pots have been collecting rainwater since tuesday and the artist plans to use it in works that she will produce over the course of her twomonth residencyballard is here as part of an artist exchange programme thats one of the initiatives of stories of the world the chief project of the london 2012 cultural olympiad supported by the british government the cultural olympiad is allied to the olympics that will take place in london in 2012 the olympiad involves exchanges between museums in the uk and across the world csmvs has tied up with norwich castle museum in norfolk in return for ballard it sent niranjan jonnalagadda a kalamkari artist with paramparik karigar it is important that the olympics is not exclusively a london and a sporting event says bill seaman assistant head of museums norfolk museums it involves the whole of britain not just the capital and is about the internationalism in cultures the uk has worldclass collections that tell stories of the worldincidentally jonnalagadda discovered a bit of personal history at the museum in norwichwhile browsing the museums textile collection he found a piece of kalamkari that was made by his greatgrandfather ballard who lives in norwich usually creates sitespecific works water is an important theme in her work at csmvs ballard plans to weave together several aquatic ideasthe museums water harvesting facility the fountain in the centre of its foyer the water colours used in the museums large collection of miniatures i like the flattening of space and perspective of indian miniatures she says a lot of them are set in a garden so im looking at the csmvs garden as a setting for my work sitespecific works are common in museums abroad but this is something mumbai has only recently begun seeing this is perhaps the first time the csmvs has invited an artist to create a work that draws on the museums own collectionthe bhau daji lad museum bdl had invited a number of artists to do work that responds to its collection of artefacts for example jitish kallat and sudarshan shetty have done shows that mingled with the bdls permanent exhibits as part of a series of artistic interventions by alumni of the jj school of art the series is a nod to bdls historic association with jj school whose students executed many of the museums figurines seaman says that apart from supporting ballard hes here to forge partnerships with indian museums mumbai is particularly relevant for british museums he says because the citys neogothic architecture makes it a fascinating mix of the familiar and the strange he explains that artists want to work in museums as they draw diverse audiences