Hughes Road Has Got A New Events Gallery

What The Art Loft is to Bandra, Ave29 hopes to be to South Mumbai. School friends turned business partners Atmika Didwania and Pia Shivdasani decided to open the events gallery, located on Hughes Road in the spot previously occupied by Idea gym, after they realised that “there were few places in South Bombay where young people are able to express their creativity,” said Didwania. Ave29, which opens today, Friday, July 27, will host everything from talks and workshops to stand-up comedy gigs, art exhibitions and pop-up stores, and even yoga and Pilates classes.

Didwania and Shivdasani, who are both 24 and have backgrounds in film and event management respectively, will conduct their own events as well as host those by other organisations. Ave29 will be the dedicated venue for all of Gyaan Exchange’s events in South Mumbai, while this coming Monday, July 30, pourmecoffee will hold a discussion on the influence of film and media on our society at the new space. Avid Learning will also conduct some of its events here, starting with a fashion photography workshop with Vikram Bawa on Saturday, August 25. If the response to the “open house” events Didwania and Shivdasani have put together to celebrate the launch of their new enterprise is anything to go by, Ave29 is just what the neighbourhood was waiting for. In just three days, they’ve already racked up 60 registrations for the cupcake-making workshop on Saturday, July 28, while over a 100 people have RSVPed for the stand-up comedy show by Tanmay Bhat later the same day.

The initial series of events, which run until next Wednesday, are all free but Didwania and Shivdasani plan to charge a registration fee for the classes and workshops they orgnanise. “The idea is that people should have something to do every day of the week,” said Didwania, who told us that in August, Ave29 will hold a trunk show by Bangalore-based online luxury store Maison, and an exhibition by ten emerging fashion designers. The elegantly decorated 2,000 square feet venue, which can accommodate up to 150 people, will soon house a takeaway deli counter selling dips, desserts and other small bites. It will also offer valet parking, a facility that was perhaps necessitated by its location on the traffic-clogged Hughes Road, which Didwania and Shivdasani chose because of its “proximity to both Worli and Cuffe Parade”.

Ave 29

Location4, Kohinoor Mansion
Same building as b:blunt
29 Hughes Road

Phone022 2380 4981 and 022 2380 4536

Websitewww.ave29.com