The centre is serving as a bridge between people and art. With a thrust on promotion and revival of traditional art forms keeping in view the needs of the society and expectations of the modern era, it attracts and associates artistes, intellectuals and art-lovers, including children, youth and women, to its various activities.

The Kendra is located on the Jawaharlal Nehru Marg on an area of 9.5 acres. The main building, designed by well-known architect Charles Correa, is a combination of the traditional as well as modern styles. It houses the administrative block, a cafertaria, a guest house, an open air theatre (Madhyavarti), a library, artistically-designed galleria, an arena and an air-conditioned theatre (Rangayan) with a seating capacity of 250.

In order to develop the Kendra as a multi-arts centre, a number of divisions have been set up to deal with various fields. Divisions like visual art and creative support services, theatre, music and dance regularly organize workshops, camps, plays, exhibitions and competitions to promote folk and traditional art and craft. The centre provides a platform to artists to display their work. The centre also undertakes promotion and development of folk theatre styles like khyal, rammat and tamasha.

The Kendra puts special emphasis to tap young and budding talents in different fields of art. To accomplish this, it organizes solo and group performances and camps of dance, music, drama, drawing and painting, batik and clay modeling etc., for children between ten and 18 years every year.

The centre has published monographs on various art forms such as Ghoomar, Kanhaiya and Dhrupad. It also grants financial assistance to authors on work related to arts. The Kendra has a well-endowed library of about 8,000 books on art and culture, which is open for limited public membership.

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