South Asia’s biggest inter-disciplinary festival also announces an exciting line-up for its multi-city cultural outreach under the Beyond Serendipity campaign

New Delhi (India), September 4: Serendipity ArtsFestival 2023 has unveiled a video that encapsulates the spirit of South Asia’s biggest multidisciplinary festival scheduled between the 15^th to 23^rd of December in Panjim, Goa. The artistic montage sets the tone for the sixth edition as it takes viewers on a visual journey of the coming together of people, craft and creativity. Registrations for the festival are open for the public on the website on August 26, with details of the dynamic programming of this year’s edition coming soon.   In addition, the festival has also initiated a multi-city campaign, #BeyondSerendipity, to interact with art enthusiasts meaningfully.

Serendipity Arts Festival’s ethos is deeply rooted in nurturing artistic innovation, transcending boundaries of traditional artistic disciplines and encouraging collaborations that break new ground. With every iteration, the programming has aimed to cut across conventional notions of art and devise inventive strategies to make it inclusive for the people and the city. 

Since its inception, the nine-day inter-disciplinary festival has remained a free event for all attendees, ensuring participation from all walks of life and ages. While this philosophy will always remain at the heart of the festival, this year, there are a few ticketed performances owing to the projects/performance spaces having limited seating. Art enthusiasts can start registering for the festival, which will give them access to all events, workshops and performances. The registrations for the ticketed performances will open in  October, and those registering for the festival early will be the first to know about the ticketed performances. These tickets are priced at a nominal fee to ensure these performances are accessible to everyone. 

Spanning across disciplines of the Performing, Visual, Culinary Arts and Craft, this year’s curators for various sections will be marrying the rich tapestry of traditional and folk cultures with the contemporary idiom. 

Serendipity Arts Festival has consistently pushed the boundaries of creativity, opening doors to new artistic realms and collaborations. This year, the programmes will unfold in 16 venues across the city, including important cultural spaces such as Nagalli Hills Ground, the PWD Complex, Old GMC and the Art Park, among others.

This year’s programming is a culmination of diversity and free-flowing ideas. The craft section is curated by Sandeep Kumar Sangaru and Anjana Somany. Quasar Thakore Padamsee, who curated last year’s theatre section, is back to helm theatrical performances. Food is an indispensable aspect of the festival, and for this edition, Chef Thomas Zacharias and The Locavore Team are taking visitors through a gastronomical journey that ties people and cultures. 

The Music section will come alive under the curation of Bickram Ghosh and Ricky Kej, offering an array of concerts spanning diverse genres. Geeta Chandran and Mayuri Upadhya are curating an inspiring blend of classical, experimental, and contemporary dance performances, complemented by engaging workshops. Veeranganakumari Solanki and Vidya Shivadas are the curators for the Visual Arts section of this edition.

The 6th edition of the festival will also feature a set of special curators, including Zubin Balaporia (Music), Vikram Iyengar (Dance), Elizabeth Yorke &Anusha Murthy with Edible Issues, who will be the special curators for culinary arts, while Bhagyashree Patwardhan will return to curate a project around a sustainable Goan market. There might be additions to the list of special curators closer to the festival.  

“Over the years, Serendipity Arts Festival has consistently pushed the boundaries of creativity, imagination and skill. It has fostered collaborations between and across art forms, and many of these go well beyond conventional templates. The Festival has emerged as a dynamic forum for ideas and cross-collaborative work in South Asia and other parts of the world, thriving in an atmosphere of inclusivity, acceptance and togetherness,” says Sunil Kant Munjal, the Founder and Patron of the Serendipity Arts Foundation.

Beyond Serendipity

Serendipity Arts Foundation has launched an initiative, ‘Beyond Serendipity,’ that seeks to engage with art enthusiasts across cities by bringing glimpses of performances representing various art forms that have previously been showcased at Serendipity Arts Festival.

The #BeyondSerendipity initiative will kickstart in Pondicherry with a musical performance by Mir Mukhtiyar Ali on September 2, 2023, at Sri Ratan Tata KoothuKovil, Adishakti Theatre.   The mesmerizing voice of Mir Mukhtiyar Ali blends the Rajasthani folk idiom with refined classicism to sing the poetry of Kabir, Mira and Sufi poets such as Bulleh Shah.

The second leg of the initiative will be held in Kolkata from September 16 to 17 with the play ‘Photo-Copy’, which is a tale about a troubled family of four reconciling with grief and loss after the death of the head of the family leaves them in a state of uncertainty. The play will be held at the Rangakarmee Studio Theatre and KCC Amphitheatre, respectively.

The last and final destination of this initiative will be from September 22 to October 8 at The Factory in Okhlawith the Gujral Foundation as Venue Partner, which will transform into an immersive theatre experience, ‘The Money Opera’,  commissioned by Serendipity Arts Foundation and conceptualized and directed by Amitesh Grover, which was first showcased at Serendipity Arts Festival 2022 in Goa. It will be a ticketed event, with two shows per day. 

“With the Beyond Serendipity campaign, we are expanding our horizons and bringing the festival closer to new audiences. Each city becomes a chapter in our story, where people from all walks of life can gather, engage, and connect through the universal language of art,” says Ms. Smriti Rajgarhia, Director of Serendipity Arts Foundation & Festival.

Serendipity Arts Residency 2023 – Open Studio

The SAF’s annual three-month artist residency in New Delhi seeks to provide its residents with space and resources to develop their practice, work on a new project and interact with the broader art community in the capital. Six artists with distinct visual vocabulary were selected for this residency, and they have been quietly nurturing their creativity pursuits and developing new work since July 1. The curtains to the ongoing residency will come down in September end, and the residency will conclude with a showcase of these new works in an open studio format on 6^th October 2023. 

The official hashtag for the 6th physical edition of Serendipity Arts Festival is #CometogetheratSAF, as a sign of celebration and sharing of a vision that has been widely supported. Along with this, the Festival is going to host a brand-new website, which will be the first interface for all festival visitors this year. 

The website will carry all information with the venue and project details, including the registration links, and will be powered by Google Calendars to organize your festival itinerary seamlessly. To know more, please visit www.serendipityartsfestival.com

You can watch the video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWaVJd1Dfes

Serendipity Arts is an arts and cultural development foundation created to encourage and support the arts as a significant contributor to civil society. It aims to promote new creative strategies, artistic interventions, and cultural partnerships that are responsive and seek to address the social, cultural, and environmental milieu of South Asia. Committed to innovation, SA intends to promote and create platforms for creativity, providing the wider public with a unique source of contemporary art and culture. SA programmes are designed and initiated through collaborations with partners across a multitude of fields, and each intervention uses the arts to impact education, create social initiatives, foster community development, and explore multi-disciplinarity forays in the arts, with a special focus on South Asia.

About Serendipity Arts Festival

The Foundation’s primary initiative and largest project, the Serendipity Arts Festival, is a multi-disciplinary arts event held annually every December in Goa. Curated by a panel of eminent artists and institutional figures, the Festival is a long-term cultural project that hopes to instigate positive change across the arts in India on a large scale. Spanning the visual, performing and culinary arts, the Festival’s programming includes music, dance, visual arts, craft, photography, film, and theatre. The Festival addresses pressing social issues such as arts education and pedagogy, cultural patronage, interdisciplinary discourse, and access to the arts. Serendipity Arts Festival’s intensive programme of exhibitions and performances is energised by spaces for social and educational engagement. The sixth edition of the Serendipity Arts Festival will take place in Goa from 15-23 December 2023.

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