17 Oct 2018  |   05:44am IST

Goa set for explosion of talent as Serendipity Arts Festival announces its return

Curated by a panel of eminent artists and institutional figures, the third edition of the Serendipity Arts Festival will take place in Goa from December 15 to 22, 2018. The festival is a long-term cultural project that hopes to instigate positive change across the arts in India on a large scale and spans the visual, performing and culinary arts

 

India’s first multi disciplinary arts event, the

Serendipity Arts Festival 2018 will ignite Goa from the December15 to 22, 2018 with over 90 dynamic projects highlighting India’s rich traditions of music, dance and theatre, alongside culinary arts, craft, and visual arts exhibitions.Serendipity Arts Festival will take place across 10 venues, energising Goa and transforming Panjim into a vibrant cultural space with multiple exhibitions, performances and immersive arts experiences.

The Serendipity Arts Festival is committed to creating tangible change across the country’s cultural spectrum by engaging the public and increasing awareness of how art can impact society, whilst generating interest in public art projects across India.The Festival addresses pressing social issues such as arts education and pedagogy, cultural patronage, interdisciplinary discourse, and accessibility to the arts. Its intensive programme of exhibitions and performances is energised by spaces for social and educational engagement.

In its previous two editions, the event attracted more than 4,00,000 visitors, and activated 1,300 artists creating significant impact and contributing to the cultural regeneration of Panjim. This year’s programming will include 1,500 artists and continue to honour the culture and the arts of the Festival’s host city, with special events to celebrate the 175th anniversary of Panjim, redefining heritage sites and architectural icons through creative and community focused projects.

An initiative of the Serendipity Arts Foundation, founded in 2016 by Sunil Kant Munjal, the Festival’s third edition is focused on fostering cultural development, supporting emerging artists across South Asia and is unique as the only arts event in the country that unites the creative disciplines.

The first two editions of the event transformed Goa and received an extremely positive reception from the public, redefining perceptions of the arts whilst also energising arts production, awareness and practice across the country.

Showcasing performative, visual and culinary practices, this year’s Festival has been designed to create a balance between artistic rigour and accessibility. Projects will unite artforms from different parts of the country, diluting regional divisions and encouraging cross-cultural exchange.

Highlights of this year’s event include theatre performances designed for children, large scale public installations in the visual arts and photography, a variety outdoor and evening music performances, culinary workshops and tastings, as well as a range of specially commissioned projects across disciplines which will be exclusive to Serendipity Arts Festival 2018.

Projects will be further activated by diverse collateral programming including panel discussions, children’s programmes, and workshops for the differently abled. These initiatives are an integral part of the Foundation’s key mission of making the arts accessible, and developing arts audiences both in numbers and in diversity. Unique activations in the core disciplines of craft, culinary arts, music, photography, visual arts, dance and theatre intend to invigorate dissipating and marginalised traditional artforms, whilst the more contemporary projects will address significant social issues. This year’s event will also have increased international participation aimed at furthering global dialogues with Indian culture.

About this year’s edition, Smriti Rajgarhia, Director, Serendipity Arts Festival said: “We are incredibly excited about this year’s edition of the Festival which has something for everyone and which will offer audiences varied platforms to engage with the arts. There’s a strong focus on interdisciplinary practice and dialogue between disciplines. Our vision is to create a strong foundation for arts development across the disciplines and we hope that the rich diversity of events this will inspire diverse audiences from across the country to visit Goa this December.”

The 90 projects this year will be accompanied by a series of special projects including The Young Subcontinent curated by Riyas Komu, St+art curated byHanif Qureishi, Out of Turn curated by Asia Art Archive and Meenakshi Thirukode and a Film Programme by Sabeena Gadihoke.

“Our vision is that the Serendipity Arts Festival becomes a catalyst for change — for artists, the community, the public and the country, impacting daily life and ultimately changing the way we interact and respond to creativity and the arts across demographics. The Festival is a platform for underrepresented and emerging artists, and also presents the curatorial vision of some of our country’s most esteemed cultural practitioners. We are honoured to present artists, artisans, indigenous and folk art forms, performers and other creative practitioners on one stage,” said Sunil Kant Munjal, Founder of The Serendipity Arts Foundation.

Serendipity Arts Foundation, a Munjal initiative for creativity, is a not-for-profit arts and cultural development Foundation that fosters cultural development and supports emerging artists across South Asia. The Foundation aims to promote new creative strategies, artistic interventions, and cultural partnerships which are responsive, addressing the social, cultural and environmental milieu of South Asia. The Foundation’s programmes are designed and initiated through innovative collaborations with partners across a multitude of fields, impacting education, promoting social growth via community development programmes, and exploring interdisciplinarity across the arts.

The Foundation’s primary initiative and largest project, Serendipity Arts Festival is a multi-disciplinary arts event held annually every December in Goa.