New Delhi, July 8 (IANS) India will join the ranks of global art hubs like Basel in Switzerland and Miami in the US with its first multi-disciplinary global art fair, the India Art Summit, here August 22-24. The fair will showcase the most comprehensive collection of Indian modern and contemporary art by over 100 artists and 40 galleries, a statement issued by its organisers Hammers M&L said. The initiative, announced in March, has been finally given a tangible shape.

The statement said the fair would be India’s first industry platform for art and art works and would include paintings, sculptures, photography, mixed media, video, prints, installations and drawings. A special collector’s preview will be held August 22.

The fair will also include in-depth panel discussions and seminars on Indian art by acclaimed Indian and international speakers at an “art forum” on the second day of the fair.

The summit, according to the statement, has generated considerable interest among international art enthusiasts, buyers and collectors, who are seeing it as India’s initiative in the world art fair circuit and also as the single-most important access point to Indian art.

The Indian art fraternity, according to the organisers, is excited to have a platform, which enables stakeholders from India and around the world to come together and discuss the creative and commercial aspects of Indian art. Several personalities from the international art world will be at the fair.

Indian art, which has been evolving as a historically-documented genre for the last 9,000 years, today is an industry worth Rs.150 billion annually. It is currently growing at 30-35 percent and has exploded by 485 percent in the last decade, making it the fourth most buoyant market in the world.