A child of Independence queuing up from 6 in the morning, ready to spend four months of his pension on a precious Ganesh Pyne. A millennial, next in line, waiting to acquire a prized Arpita Singh with her very first paycheque as a tech intern. This is the magic of the CIMA Art Mela — the annual affordable art sale that has become a much-loved tradition, with Kolkata queuing up from early in the morning, long before the gallery doors open at 11 am. The CIMA Art Mela was started 16 years ago by the Centre of International Modern Art, Kolkata, with one simple but ambitious aim: to bring high quality art, by some of India’s most important artists alongside the finest emerging talent, into hundreds of homes at prices that people could actually afford. (Think ₹5,000 to ₹6,00,000.) At CIMA, we have long been concerned by the lack of museums and accessible public spaces for viewing fine art in India. This absence has meant that fine art has gradually disappeared from the wider public domain of the middle-class art lover, becoming increasingly confined to corporate collections, private interiors and the homes of a privileged few. The Art Mela was conceived as an answer to this. We wanted to bring art back into the everyday lives of the middle class — a section of society that has traditionally demonstrated both a deep appreciation for and a strong engagement with the arts. After extensive dialogue with the artistic community, we became convinced that the way forward was to create a credible platform where people could acquire original works of art at genuinely accessible prices. And the response, from the very first morning of the Art Mela in 2008, has been nothing short of phenomenal.