Goa’s Serendipity Arts Festival travels to New Delhi this year

After eight days of cultural extravaganza in Goa last December, Serendipity Arts Festival is all set for its Delhi edition, bringing a rare mix of crafts exhibition, photography exhibition, design installation, dance performances, storytelling session and a theatre performance to the national capital.

Organised by the Serendipity Arts Trust, the festival will be held at Bikaner House for 11 days, from 6 to 16 April.

Spread across eight venues in Panaji, the first edition of the interdisciplinary arts festival had 14 curators facilitating dialogues and 53 projects in various fields. 

Art connoisseurs looking to make value addition to their collection will find the festival inspiring, as piece of craft and photography can be purchased too. All the proceeds of sales will go towards helping craftspersons and school, which was involved in the photography project, the organisers said. “Indian Crafts: Traditions and Expressions,” an exhibition by Manjari Nirula and Jyotindra Jain, will explore the possibility of creating a contemporary environment for artisans by nudging them to explore their inherent creativity. These works on display will be on sale, where the proceeds go back to the Serendipity Arts Trust, and the funds, according to the organisers, will be used to support artisan communities. 

The festival will also present “Chakraview,” which is curated by Rajshree Pathy with design by Sumant Jayakrishnan. This project represented India at the London Design Biennale. This project was added into the programming to bring the art and design communities together and to draw inspiration from their confluence.

“The Express/Aspire project” with the Auxilium High School, Goa, explores photography and how a child looks through the lens. This project curated by Samar Jodha, begins a multi-layered inquisition into how to engage children with creativity and how it helps develop the child’s personality.

Sanjeev Bhargava’s project “Sandhi” questions the hierarchies that exist between a classical musician and dancer. This project is a depiction of creative collaborations, and the productions have provided an opportunity for interdisciplinary synergy where literature and music within dance are emphasised. 

The festival will also present “Chakraview,” which is curated by Rajshree Pathy with design by Sumant Jayakrishnan. This project represented India at the London Design Biennale. This project was added into the programming to bring the art and design communities together and to draw inspiration from their confluence.

“The festival emphasises the importance of the Indian traditions in art along with introducing the Capital to the variety in art and culture through novel concepts of visual and performing arts. Serendipity Arts Festival is more than a showcase of great Indian art — it is a cultural experiment that hopes to, over time, affect the way Indians interact with art on a daily basis by addressing issues such as arts education, patronage culture, interdisciplinary discourse, and accessibility of the arts,” said Sunil Munjal, the founder patron of Serendipity Arts Trust. 

Those who missed out on the Goa edition will get a peek of it in the Delhi edition. An intensive schedule of exhibitions and performances will be accessible to audiences throughout the 11 days of the festival in the Capital.  ians