Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath

The Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath (CKP) on Kumara Krupa Road is one of South India’s foremost visual-arts institutions — a cluster of galleries, an art college and studios founded in 1960 by the artist and educationist Prof. M. S. Nanjunda Rao.

Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Central Bengaluru
Practical guide

Plan Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath

Who's going?Tailor Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath to your trip
Typemuseum
Nearest baseCentral Bengaluru
DistrictBengaluru Urban
Best timeOctober to February
Time needed1 to 1.5 hours
EntrySmall fee (~Rs 20–40)
Places to visit24Listed businesses49

Its permanent galleries range across traditional Mysore paintings, Indian folk and tribal art, leather puppets and a large collection of works by the Russian painter Nicholas Roerich and his son Svetoslav, alongside changing shows of contemporary Indian art.

What to expect

Highlights

  • Galleries of Mysore traditional, folk and tribal art.
  • The Nicholas and Svetoslav Roerich collection.
  • The annual Chitra Santhe — a huge open-air street art fair.
Getting there

How to visit

  • On Kumara Krupa Road near the centre; autos and buses reach it, with the High Grounds and Sadashivanagar nearby.
  • Buy the modest entry ticket at the counter; the Chitra Santhe (usually January) is free but very crowded.

Distance by road

  • Mysuru145 km
  • Chennai350 km
  • Hyderabad570 km
  • Mangaluru350 km
  • Coimbatore365 km

Road km to Bengaluru Urban; ghat roads and traffic vary — allow extra.

Timing

Best time

October to February; the Chitra Santhe street fair (usually early January) is the highlight.

Weather in Karnataka Chitrakala ParishathSeasonal guide

Live forecast loads in your browser.

Today at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath
Sunrise6:09 am
Sunset6:31 pm
Golden hour best light5:31 pm–6:31 pm
Blue hour after sunset6:31 pm–6:56 pm
Sun sets toward compass bearingW · 279°
Moon tonight🌖 Waning gibbous · 77%
South-west monsoon. June to September is the south-west monsoon in Karnataka. Expect heavy showers, mostly in bursts rather than all day — carry rain cover, allow extra time for getting around, and note that ferries and open-air sites are the first things affected.

Sun and moon are calculated for this location and shown in IST. Photography windows are the hour around sunrise and sunset; the sunset bearing is degrees clockwise from true north. Moon phase is accurate to about half a day.

Visitor notes

  • A small entry fee applies; photography inside the galleries may be restricted.
Stay · eat · do · rent · see · shop

Stays, food & things to do near Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath

Verified hotels, homestays, restaurants, experiences, sights, shops and rentals around Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath — commission-free, with direct contact. Filter by what you need.

1 place to stay near Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath

D
Dass Suites
Place to stay
Hotel
Dass Suites
11.1 km · 16 min drive

Hotel on Vasvani Layout, Challaghatta Road, Next to Embassy Golf Link Business Park, Behind Hilton Hotel, Domlur in Central Bengaluru.

Directions Commission-freeView details

Book with the place itself. India’s cyber-crime coordination centre warned in April 2025 that convincing copies of hotel and pilgrimage booking sites are being pushed through sponsored search and social ads, taking payment for rooms the property never hears about. Every listing here links to the business’s own contact details and its own Google or Bing profile — we take no commission and sit in nobody’s payment path. If a booking page reached you through an ad, check the address bar against the property’s own site before you pay. Fraud can be reported on cybercrime.gov.in or on 1930.

Ranked

The best of Central Bengaluru, ranked

Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath sits in Central Bengaluru, and these rank everything verified across the town rather than this one spot — built from the same listings shown above, ordered by the strength of the source evidence behind each entry rather than by anyone's star score. Every card shows how many places are really on it. Nobody pays to appear.

Nearest to Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, on foot

Ordered by a real routed walk from Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath itself — the walking network, not a line on a map, which understates a real walk by about half again. A different question, and a different answer, from the town-wide lists below.

Across the whole of Central Bengaluru

Ranked guides

Top experiences around Central Bengaluru

10 more places around Central Bengaluru, each worth a day of its own.

heritageCubbon Park

3.1 km · 7 min drive

A 300-acre landscaped green lung in the city centre, laid out in 1870, ringed by the red-brick Attara Kacheri (High Court), State Central Library and Government Museum.

heritageVidhana Soudha

2.9 km · 5 min drive

Karnataka's monumental granite state legislature building, completed in 1956 in a Neo-Dravidian style; floodlit on Sunday evenings and viewed from outside.

heritageBangalore Palace

2.5 km · 30 min walk

A Tudor-revival palace built in 1878 by the Wodeyar royal family, with fortified towers, arches and interiors of Wodeyar-era portraits and furniture.

heritageTipu Sultan's Summer Palace

An ornate two-storey teak palace completed in 1791 for Tipu Sultan, richly carved and painted, now an ASI-protected monument beside the KR Market fort area.

templeISKCON Temple Bangalore

A large hilltop Krishna-Balaram temple at Rajajinagar, one of the biggest ISKCON temples in the world, known for its gopuram, glass-and-gold shrine and multimedia halls.

heritageUlsoor Lake

One of the largest and oldest lakes in the city, in the Ulsoor (Halasuru) neighbourhood near MG Road, dotted with small islands and offering boating, a lakeside promenade and a Ganesha temple on its bank.

museumVisvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum

4.6 km · 8 min drive

A hands-on science and technology museum on Kasturba Road beside Cubbon Park, opened in 1965 in memory of engineer-statesman Sir M. Visvesvaraya, with interactive galleries on engines, electronics and space and a full-scale Wright Flyer replica.

museumHAL Aerospace Museum

India's first aerospace museum, opened in 2001 by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited near the old HAL airport, displaying vintage fighter aircraft, helicopters, aero-engines, a flight simulator and the story of Indian aviation.

museumJawaharlal Nehru Planetarium

1.8 km · 21 min walk

A sky-theatre and science centre at the High Grounds run by the Bangalore Association for Science Education, with domed astronomy shows, a science park of interactive exhibits and a public telescope programme.

heritageSankey Tank

3.0 km · 5 min drive

A scenic man-made lake created in 1882 by Colonel Richard Sankey between Malleswaram and Sadashivanagar, ringed by a popular walking and jogging track, with boating and plentiful water birds.

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Before you go

Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath — at a glance

Timings10:00 AM - 5:00 PM (confirm)
Best timeOctober to February; Chitra Santhe (~Jan)

Entry: Small fee (~Rs 20–40); Chitra Santhe fair free

Getting here

How to reach Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath

Kumara Krupa Road; near the High Grounds

Getting back

Work out your return before you settle in for the sunset. Public transport here thins out sharply in the evening, and Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath is easier to reach than to leave. We do not publish departure times: there is no official live feed we are permitted to republish, and a wrong time here would strand you. Check the operator directly on the day.

Ask at the bus stand for the time of the last service back, not the next one. If you miss it, an auto or app cab is the fallback — agree the fare before you get in.

Getting around Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath

We have not assessed physical access at this place yet. Across India, step-free routes, handrails and accessible toilets are the exception rather than the rule, and pavements are often interrupted — if step-free access matters to you, contact the site or a local operator before committing to the trip.

If you need help at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath
112All emergencies (police · fire · medical)The single number to call in any emergency (ERSS).

Emergency numbers are verified against official government and state tourism sources. 112 works anywhere in India.

Nearby

What’s near Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath

heritageBangalore Palace 2.5 km · 30 min walk
heritageFreedom Park 2.5 km · 30 min walk
churchSt. Mark's Cathedral 2.6 km · ~6 min by auto · straight line
churchSt. Mary's Basilica 2.6 km · ~6 min by auto · straight line
heritageVidhana Soudha 2.9 km · 5 min drive
heritageSankey Tank 3.0 km · 5 min drive
heritageCubbon Park 3.1 km · 7 min drive
mosqueJumma Masjid 4.4 km · 7 min drive

All 24 places to visit in Central Bengaluru →

Walking and driving times are real routed distances, except the few marked “straight line”, which are direct-line estimates and will read short. Routing: © openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT | Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

On the map

Where Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath is

Good to know

Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath — frequently asked

When is the best time to visit Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath?

October to February; the Chitra Santhe street fair (usually early January) is the highlight.

What are the entry fee and timings at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath?

Entry: Small fee (~Rs 20–40); Chitra Santhe fair free. Timings: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM (confirm).

How do I reach Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath?

On Kumara Krupa Road near the centre; autos and buses reach it, with the High Grounds and Sadashivanagar nearby. Buy the modest entry ticket at the counter; the Chitra Santhe (usually January) is free but very crowded.

How much time do I need for Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath?

1 to 1.5 hours.

What else is near Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath?

Nearby you can pair National Gallery of Modern Art (1.5 km), Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium (1.8 km), Bangalore Palace (2.5 km), Freedom Park (2.5 km).

Read before you go

Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath guides, stories & itineraries

We have not published a story about Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath itself yet. These cover Central Bengaluru, the town it sits in, and the wider district.

Karnataka-wide guides & itineraries

Route-level itineraries and practical guides for the rest of Karnataka.

See all 3 Bengaluru Urban guides & stories →

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