Arthshila Art Studios - fostering creativity, innovation, and cultural exchange through art

Art and its many expressions help us expand the borders of possibility. It enables humans to imagine a world that is extraordinary in its worship of the beautiful. Arthshila, an immersive platform dedicated to the arts, with centres in Ahmedabad, Santiniketan, and Delhi is hoping to expand the frontiers of the creative practice in India. The Art Studios by Arthshila, situated in the Parivartan campus, Siwan, Bihar, offers residential facilities for painting, ceramics, and printmaking.

Collaborating with award-winning organisations, including Khoj and Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA), Arthshila Art Studios in Siwan host numerous residencies and serve as the venue for the annual student arts camp, pegged as a vibrant hub in South Asia, where artists from India and abroad can convene, create, and learn together. “It is a unique initiative designed to bring together students of print making and ceramics from various government art colleges across India to give them exposure to work in Arthshila Studios,” says Sanjiv Kumar, Founder of Arthshila.

This year the annual student arts camp spread over 14 days, focused on explorations of various processes and allowed students to experiment with them. The selection process was drawn up to optimise mentorship for young talent so that budding brush maestros get opportunities to flourish. Students participating in the arts camp were nominated across colleges by senior members of their faculty. The nomination was preceded by teachers assessing the areas of interest of their disciples and the benefit accrued to them from being exposed to a collaborative and diverse group of creators.
Art Camps were held within the premises of Takshila Education Society’s rural development centre, Parivartan in Siwan.

The Centre had been built with the belief to foster a holistic and heuristic development of rural communities. “The idea was to inculcate a sense of commitment, and responsibility towards our ecological and cultural resources as well as build an enabled, skilled and inclusive society which motivates, nurtures and inspires people to dream of future life goals,” says Kumar.

He adds that Parivartan continues to create opportunities of growth based on individual interests, choices and cultural traditions.
Art can also be seen as a commentary of a specific moment in time. Thus, it is important to know why Arthshila Art Studios came to be in the first place. Started in 2016, it has consistently been nurtured and shaped by the idea of cultural exchanges through art. Integral to the space are a graphic art studio, ceramic studio, sculpture and painting studio and an art library. 

Driving this institution of sensory rewards is a powerful desire --- to provide a space where practitioners from diverse creative communities could come together, collaborate, and explore new artistic horizons. The state-of-the-art facilities, access to materials and mentorship, are all part of a larger plan to empower artists and contribute to the cultural landscape of the region.

Artists from a range of cultural contexts and also different stations in their practice are offered access to both material comforts and a spectrum of inspiration from the local ecosystem. While there are opportunities to interact with a bunch of local projects, the institution’s programme includes workshops and residencies across an arc, stretching from skill based to conceptual explorations. Running through it all is the spirit of collective learning and immersion into rural Indian life.

The story of passing on the legacy of ancient art and craft traditions is incomplete without a keen attention to infrastructure development. Kumar reckons that although there has been a significant shift towards digital and experiential practices across the world, these changes have also ushered a return to traditional materials and processes. “These traditions may allude to regional or vernacular cultural contexts such as working with textiles, earth, stone or wood and narratives which are, for instance, local responses to global ecological issues such as climate change,” he says. Hence, Arthshila has devoted substantial thought and displayed visionary commitment in building capacities at its Art Studios complex so that artists can create transfigurative pieces.

It houses a ceramic studio, featuring state-of-the-art equipment including gas-operated kilns, potter’s wheels, and materials for glazing, promoting pottery as a sustainable livelihood for local villagers. The painting studio, equipped with adjustable easels, canvas frames, and a wide range of art materials, has also doubled as the venue for international artist symposiums. A unique highlight is the sculpture studio, that helps creators develop a unique craft vocabulary through facilities for metal casting and stone carving.

Not surprisingly, the vast range of infrastructure support for artisans is tied intimately with an equal encouragement for exhibition of their outputs. “The Arthshila Art Symposia are curated to cover a wide range of artistic disciplines and traditions, providing diverse opportunities for artists to explore different mediums and cultural expressions,” says Kumar. In recent years, some of the notable art and craft showcases include Arthshila Folk Metal

Art Symposium 2023, Folk Terracotta Symposium 2022, Folk Painting Symposium 2022, Bihar Artists Symposium 2022, Sculpture Symposium 2019 and the International Artists Symposium 2018.
Art as a sensory and spiritual experience needs to be nurtured and revitalised. It is part of an ecosystem that demands care and tireless effort over a long span of time. Arthshila Art Studios, to that end, is nourishing an environment featuring multiple stakeholders --- artists, curators, scholars, and art enthusiasts --- with integrity and devotion, so that it can benefit artists of all traditions and seniority. For instance, it has created a residency programme in collaboration with 

Khoj, a transdisciplinary arts organisation, that is specifically tailored for young artists who are in the process of developing a distinct artistic voice so that they can make significant contributions in their respective fields. It nudges creators towards advanced artistic exploration across mediums, including ceramics, textiles, sculpture, printmaking alongside performative and mix-media. “It offers a platform for established artists to delve deeply into their practice, pushing the boundaries of their creativity,” says Kumar. The Arts Student Camp, on the other hand, is aimed at students of art across government institutions who are interested in ceramics or print making, who will benefit from mentorship, guidance and exposure.

Arthshila is currently moving in all directions, hoping to energise the arts space in new and engaging ways. It has recently opened a Delhi centre to strengthen its reach and engage with a wider audience, although there are currently no plans to open a separate art studio in the capital. Serving as an eclectic venue for exhibitions, workshops, and cultural events, the Delhi centre will power Arthshila’s vision to promote art and creativity across different regions. Art does not exist on its own. It is an enquiry into ideas that make up our world. Institutions like Arthshila are striving hard to bolster the foundations of this ancient, dazzling and emotional human pursuit in India in a meaningful way.