Programmes

75 years of art, architecture and ecology

On the occasion of the garden’s 75th anniversary, the Geoffrey Bawa Trust explores the intertwining of art and ecology; particularly in the ways we understand nature and the natural, archives and rituals, and food and healing. Dedicated to the garden, and using the garden as a lens for engagement, the programme is an opportunity for the Trust’s curatorial team to explore multivocal projects across generations and geographies.

National Gallery of Modern Art, the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, the High Commission of Sri Lanka, New Delhi with the Geoffrey Bawa Trust Colombo, presents Geoffrey Bawa: It is Essential to be There – the first major exhibition which draws from the archives to look at the Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa’s practice.

The Geoffrey Bawa Memorial Lecture is an annual event organised by the Geoffrey Bawa Trust which coincides with Geoffrey Bawa’s birth anniversary.

In our first event as the organisers of Open House Colombo, we opened doors to buildings by Justin Samarasekera, Minnette de Silva, Geoffrey Bawa, Panini Tennekoon and Valentine Gunasekara to understand the distinctive responses of these contemporaries in architecture, working in a shared context and responding to the specificities of Sri Lanka at the time.

The Geoffrey Bawa Trust hosted a three-part series of participatory events from August to November 2022, in an effort to expand the conversation around Justin Samarasekera (1916−2003), Minnette de Silva (1918−1998), Geoffrey Bawa (1919−2003), Panini Tennekoon (1923−2007) and Valentine Gunasekara (1931−2017).

The Geoffrey Bawa Trust and the Embassy of France to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, through the support of the Residency Fabric of Institut Français, are excited to announce the two selected French artists that will inaugurate the first edition of the De Saram House residency.

The Geoffrey Bawa Awards were conceptualised in 2007 to recognise and reward outstanding examples of contemporary Sri Lankan architecture.

The year 2019 marked the centenary of Geoffrey Bawa’s birth and the Lunuganga Trust celebrated this eminent architect’s legacy through a programme of events scheduled from July 2019 to July 2020.