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Artsforward

@artsforwardindia

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15 years of creating compelling artistic experiences for diverse communities. We work out of Kolkata and Bengaluru. 🇮🇳

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The arts and performance remind us to ask questions and connect to wonder when life takes over and all we are doing is surviving and coping.

Artsforward has had the rare privilege of curating and presenting Diya Naidu 's work over the last decade in its many provocative, intuitive and discursive iterations.

We are delighted to collaborate with @thebargecompany and be supported by the Australian Consulate-General in Kolkata and Bangalore to present in Kolkata this new interdisciplinary and cross-cultural collaboration that Diya Naidu and Nadia Milford have imagined and created over the last two years.

The work is autobiographical, embodied and emerging from real conversations between two women across oceans working in the arts and reflecting on race, migration, ecology, grief and urgent political crises with gentleness, play and care.

We look forward to welcoming you to Kolkata @theoceanbetween_us.

Thank you @theredbarikolkata
And @offstageblr for the support.

This is an invite-only event. Please DM us to know more.

#arts #performance
#calcutta #water #conversation by @artsforwardindia

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6 days ago

Aparajita Awards 2026 — Saluting Womanhood. ✨

Aparajita is a story of women, for women, celebrating their journeys, recognising their achievements and honouring the strength, resilience and spirit that define them.

A celebration of women who inspire, empower and create a lasting impact.

#AparajitaAwards2026 #SalutingWomanhood #Aparajita #AparajitaAwards #WomenForWomen #CelebratingWomen #WomenOfImpact #WomenOfStrength #SanmargHindi #SanmargAparajita by @artsforwardindia

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17 days ago

Through the last month these hardworking artists from @contineww have come together in studios, schools, auditoriums and other spaces to prepare themselves and the energetic young girls from Nistha School/Aparajita Institution for the celebrations of 15 years of @sanmarg.aparajita.

While our extended design, visual, music and animation teams are working to put together this celebration of social impact. More later.

Thank you @theruchikaguptaofficial for your warmth, support and partnership.

Thank you @visshnupriya09 and the whole team of @sanmarg.aparajita for taking such good care of us.

@artsforwardindia is proud to be a part of this important landmark event in Eastern India.

See you on the eve of Independence Day celebrating what truly needs celebrating every moment, the grit and gumption of women who come through in spite of all odds.

#paromuses by @artsforwardindia

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2 months ago

Manipur’s Surjit Nongmeikapam @surjit_nongmeikapam has created a deeply provocative and visceral performance about the feeling of being adrift in ‘Fountain’.

As we left the performance area, all of us in the audience were left unsettled and silent, questioning our roles as citizens and fellow countrymen.

Our deepest gratitude to our venue partner, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata @goetheinstitut_kolkata , for trusting us with this incredible space and allowing Surjit’s creativity to transform it.

We are incredibly grateful to Surjit Nongmeikapam, and remain in awe of his creative spirit, which always stumps us in the best possible way.

And, without a doubt, many thanks to our donors and our audience for their unwavering support.

With this powerful performance, we have wrapped up At The Still Point Act VIII: ‘Be.long.ing’ ❤️

Photo credits: Rana Banerjee @ranabanerjee37

Tags: #AtTheStillPoint #ArtsFestival #ArtsandCulture #Kolkata #Performance taken in Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata by @artsforwardindia

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2 months ago

Seeds, ecology, personal struggles and collective strength were the takeaways from @gramartproject ‘s riveting, thought provoking performance that moved us into silence on Day 1 of At The Still Point Act VIII ❤️

Our deepest gratitude to the performers of Gram Art Project Collective lead by @shwetabhattad and team @cotton.stainers as well as our venue partner @theurbantheatreproject ✨

Lastly, a massive shoutout to the audience who showed up and filled both shows, your support is everything 🫶🏽

Today is Day 2 of At The Still Point🌻

‘Fountain’ by Surjit Nongmeikapam
1st August, Saturday
7 pm
📍Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata

Limited seats available. Book via link in bio🔗
DM 98300 90527 or 76758 79994 for any queries

Hope to see you there today!

Photo credits: Rana Banerjee @ranabanerjee37

Tags: #AtTheStillPoint #ArtsFestival #Kolkata #ArtsandCulture #Performance by @artsforwardindia

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2 months ago

We are delighted to introduce our second performance artist, acclaimed interdisciplinary multi-media experimental performance artist from Manipur who performs across the world, Surjit Nongmeikapam ❤️

A quiet yet towering presence in the contemporary dance landscape of India, Surjit brings to his art a rare rootedness in community, ritual and nature. His abstraction captures deep suffering and delirious joy in a meditative exploration that elevates emotion to reflection.

Tickets:
Link will be up soon. Stay tuned.

Contribute:
Our crowdfund is open. We’d truly appreciate if you could contribute to the cultural intervention we are building one Act at a time. Link is in our bio, or DM us and we’ll send it across.

Poster designed by: @maker_creative_agency

Photo credits:
Slide 2 - Softmachine
Slide 6 - Namaida

Tags: #movementartist #AtTheStillPoint #Performance #Kolkata #ArtsFestival Dance performance, performing arts, things to do in kolkata, dance festival, movement art, performance festival, Calcutta, Calcutta city, kolkata city, events in kolkata by @artsforwardindia

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3 months ago

We are so thrilled to bring Gram Art Project @gramartproject to this edition of At The Still Point ❤️

The Gram Art Project is a collective of 150 individuals from across 8 villages in the Paradsinga area. They practice agroecology on 16 acres of land, while embedding socially engaged art in their daily rhythm and
community life.

By coming together as a network of organic growers, seed savers, and farmers of indigenous cotton, this group farms and lives in ways that re-ignites deep ecological connections between individuals, communities, and their land.

Founded by artist and performer, Shweta Bhattad @shwetabhattad working across mediums, the collective deploy only local resources and fulfil most of their needs from their farm-ecosystem. Through this process, for over ten years, they have gradually reclaimed their land, reclaimed their seeds, re-envisioned farming, returned to sustainable food systems, and recast their own daily practices of life.

Registration link will be up soon. Stay tuned.

Our crowdfund is open. We’d truly appreciate if you could contribute to the cultural intervention we are building one Act at a time. Link is in our bio, or DM us and we’ll send it across.

Tags: #Agroecology #AtTheStillPoint #Performance #Kolkata #ArtsFestival taken in Kolkata by @artsforwardindia

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3 months ago

What are art and performance if not an opportunity to expand ourselves, make other ways of seeing possible, imagine other worlds of being, and find reason to love more fully and live more deeply?

Our dear friends and community members, we are back with Act VIII of At the Still Point. This year our Act is centered on the theme of Belonging. We are bringing work into Kolkata that is rooted away from urban cultures, born from soil, nature, community and the strife for justice and sovereignty.

Where do we belong? What belongs to us? What are we longing for? Do we belong to communities, cultures, faith, families? Where are we most vulnerable? What are these deep often unrealised relationships to the land, to water, to air, to plants, fungi and mountains? In these broken, turbulent times, how does this feeling of belonging help us see people and power differently?

For this Act we have Gram Art Project @gramartproject from Paradsinga village, Madhya Pradesh and Surjit Nongneikapam @surjit_nongmeikapam from Imphal, Manipur with work that draws our attention to belonging, to realms and gatherings that are larger than ourselves.

Thank you Romit and We are Maker for this evocative poster and capturing in it the pure and unrestrained joy of Matisse.

Thank you Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata @goetheinstitut_kolkata and The Urban Theatre Project @theurbantheatreproject for holding space for our beautiful artists.

At The Still Point is a crowd-funded dance platform curated and produced by Artsforward @artsforwardindia . It features artists whose work is edgy, dynamic and extraordinary in the way it contributes to current social and political discourse.

Do contribute to our crowdfund and support the arts. Link in bio.

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Tags: #AtTheStillPoint #Performance #ArtsFestival #Kolkata #Crowdfund Festival of performance, dance festival, India, things to do in kolkata, Calcutta, Festival taken in Kolkata by @artsforwardindia

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3 months ago

Last August we lived Act VII of At the Still Point. The artists, teams, partners and audiences came together in a rare synergy to remember, to care and to love. Remembering together makes sure that nothing is forgotten. Like Nimi says, nothing must be forgotten.

As we start preparing for ATSP Act VIII, head to our videos in the link in bio to watch a short film edited by the most extraordinary @vividserenity on what went down in Act VII - To Remember Again.

Thank you to everyone who come together every year to make this festival what it is.

#gratitude #act7 #atsp7 #atthestillpoint by @artsforwardindia

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4 months ago

Grateful to @t2telegraph for the continued support for the arts in the city. Holding space for independent expression and exploration of diverse forms.

Thank you @_.duttaa._ for articulating our ideas and thoughts through your words as you continue to observe us finding new movement for the new crises and joys that we inhabit, individually and collectively.

Team @experimenterkol, thank you for opening up Outpost and Rathin Barman's art to us. We felt held and inspired.

Thank you Sukrit for your luminous self. And so instinctively getting the pulse of dance and capturing the intricate emotions through voice and instrument.

Dear comrades on the floor, beautiful dancers, thank you for all that you do to imagine, create, learn and share as we @contineww discovering why we dance.

Here's to Dance Day everyday.

#performance #danceday #art by @artsforwardindia

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5 months ago

In a landscape where resources for the arts are increasingly limited, navigating funding opportunities can feel overwhelming. With only a handful of grants and institutional support available, many artists are turning to their communities to help bring their projects to life.

Crowdfunding has become one such approach—an accessible way to initiate and sustain creative work through collective support.

I reached out to @artsontop to better understand what one should keep in mind when asking people to contribute and support a project.

Paramita Saha is a performer, curator and interdisciplinary art and culture architect using solution-driven thought, communication, methodologies and art to create communities of tomorrow. She is Co-founder-director of Artsforward, building an alternative, accessible ecosystem for contemporary art, performance, and socially engaged creative practices by bringing arts and performances to unexpected spaces and fostering critical discussions over 15 years.

She is the founder-curator and fundraiser for At the Still Point, India’s only completely community -financed performance festival At the Still Point due for its 8th edition in 2026. by @artsforwardindia

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5 months ago

Last Thursday at Experimenter Outpost at Alipore Museum, Kolkata was truly magical, as we gathered to witness a deeply evocative and riveting performance 𝘈𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘣𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘓𝘰𝘴𝘴 by the artists of The Continew Collective @contineww. The works on view as part of Rathin Barman’s solo 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘻𝘰𝘯 were brought to life as the performers articulated their responses through an introspective synergy of body and movement—while also carving out a new horizon of hope and liberation in the process.

Our thanks to Paramita Saha @artsontop and Artsforward @artsforwardindia for a one-of-a-kind experience that will stay with us.

Photographs by @ranabanerjee37 taken in Alipore Museum by @artsforwardindia

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6 months ago