Govandi Arts Festival 2025

Govandi Arts Festival is hosted by Community Design Agency, and the registered charity is Curry Stone Design Foundation.

Govandi Arts Festival is a community-led arts and culture movement that reclaims, transforms and celebrates the socio-spatial narrative of marginalised neighbourhoods in Mumbai’s Govandi.

The M-East Ward of Mumbai, parts of which are referred to as Govandi, located on the north-east edge of this megacity, is home to Mumbai’s largest resettled population. Nearly 8 lakh children and youth grow up in this neighbourhood that is infamously identified as unsafe and criminalized. Residents often find the need to hide their addresses in order to get admissions in schools or be selected for jobs.

Platform for Creative Expression and Cultural Resilience

We use arts as a medium to develop an alternate lens and pedagogy of engagement for Govandi which celebrates resilience and creativity at a local and global scale rather than reductionary exposure as a place of have-nots.

Over the last 7 years of using arts-based creative interventions within the neighbourhood, multiple tangible and intangible, big and small transformations have begun to emerge. This has led the youth to express and explore their artistic selves, while they work on improving their neighbourhood.

Supported by the British Council’s Together Season of Culture 2023 and Curry Stone Foundation, the last edition of the Festival in 2023 was a culmination of the 6 months mentorship programmes in visual and performing arts along with artist residencies. This neighbourhood wide initiative brought together 10+ skilled art practitioners who empowered 40 young community leaders, engaged over 300 local residents, and attracted more than 2,000 visitors from the city. The impact was not just limited to the Festival. Post GAF, our mentees had the opportunity to perform, exhibit and screen their performances, art and films at multiple national and international events and festivals. A significant impact of GAF, is our recently launched Under One Sky initiative, that offers programming for sustained arts, learning, and wellbeing at three community centres in Govandi. As a part of this, we work with over 20 art based practitioners around the city, whose works will be displayed at the upcoming 5-day long Festival. 

The 2023 edition of the festival opened a new world of opportunities for its young artists! Films by mentees, Sana Shaikh and Ifra Khan were selected for national and international festivals, like the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) 2023, and the Los Angeles International Children’s Film Festival, among many others. The rap collective, Code 43, have performed across Mumbai and Delhi, and now mentor special needs children in rap music. Govandi’s youth continue to share their stories on panel discussions, shaping narratives about their neighbourhood and beyond. We were covered by national and local media like the Indian Express, The Hindu, Midday, Festivals from India, Mumbai Mirror, etc. And were invited to present at Glastonbury Festival, CultureCon, Nazariya etc. Continuous efforts have led the team to represent GAF at various forums. Natasha Sharma, co-founder and curator of the festival recently spoke about her practice and festival at TEDx, and Parveennisa Shaikh, co-founder and festival manager has been nominated as a Grassroots Women Change Agent.

The first edition of the festival was a roaring success - and we are now fundraising for the second one!

For the 2025 edition, we aim to raise:

• ₹15 lacs to support Govandi’s young artists. Your contributions will fund mentorships for 60 young artists, providing six months of training with established artists—nurturing talent, amplifying voices, and unlocking opportunities. The themes of this edition are gender, climate, food, and identity. The festival is scheduled for 12-16th November, 2025.

Support us to transform Govandi through arts and culture! Your support will ensure the second edition of the festival to bring about transformation and creative resilience.