pune with the lalit kala akademi having conducted its art camp in donje near pune recently after a gap of 20 years the need for maharashtra to have the akademis regional centre looks all the more imperative the akademi has been approaching the maharashtra government time and again for establishing its regional centre we have been asking the state government here to give us land to set up a regional centre but this will take a while to be implemented said ashok vajpeyi chairman lalit kala akademi founded and funded by the ministry of culture government of india on his recent visit to pune eminent poetcritic translator editor and culturalactivist vajpeyi is widely recognised as an outstanding promoter of culture and an innovative institutionbuilder he said maharashtra remains a very important centre of creative and the visual arts cities like mumbai and pune have been probable suggestions for setting up the akademis regional centres even though pune is known as maharashtras cultural capital mumbai has been the centre of modern indian art but since mumbai is huge and land availability is a big problem we still dont know whether the regional centre would be based in mumbai or pune said vajpeyi every year the akademi conducts 200 different programmes all over india very often the annual art exhibition that we hold has the maximum response from maharashtrabased artists this itself shows how important the state is for us said vajpeyi with the akademi and its centres across indian being funded entirely by the ministry of culture its important to have local support he said in order to establish a regional centre in maharashtra we would like to have local support in the form of organisations art institutions and the like and that will take a while to happen added vajpeyi