The Future of Public Art Takes Shape: Serendipity Arts and FICA Announce 2026–27 Futures in Formation Fellows

Artist and filmmaker Adheep Das, whose multidisciplinary practice spans film, animation, drawing and puppetry. His Moustache Sun (Mooch Waala Sooraj) project, developed with the Rajasthani kathputli community in Delhi, explores storytelling, migration and collaborative image-making through puppetry and animation.

Artist, illustrator and design researcher Bao, whose practice explores caste, gender, politics and visual design. Her project Vidrohi Shala: Recreating Savitrimai’s Classroom as a Living Insurrection reimagines a public, anti-caste feminist classroom through textiles, embroidery and collective learning.

Artist and art educator Reshma Khatoon, whose participatory practice explores identity, memory and lived experiences. Her project Maa Ki Baat, supported through extended support, uses embroidery, drawing and printmaking to transform stories and memories of motherhood into collective acts of remembrance.

Genderqueer artist-researcher Maya.nk, whose practice explores material, memory and time through photography, video, archives and participatory research. Their project Queer Childhoods uses conversations, oral histories and childhood photographs to explore memory, identity and alternative ways of seeing and listening to the past.

Visual artist Saroj Kumar Badatya, whose practice explores grass, agriculture, climate change and traditional knowledge. His project creates living ecological archives across Odisha and Ladakh, documenting local grasses, farming practices and community knowledge through printmaking, drawing and natural materials.

Untitled Kitchen, in collaboration with Karuppu Art Studio, explores food, gathering and collective making as ways of creating spaces for connection, dialogue and community. The project brings their practices together to build shared experiences rooted in everyday life and local communities.

~Six artists and collectives to develop public art projects rooted in collaboration, community and care

Panaji, August 2026: Serendipity Arts and the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) announce the second edition of Futures in Formation: A Public Art Programme (2026–27), supporting artists and collectives whose practices explore new ways for art to exist in public life through collaboration, research and sustained community engagement.

The 2026–27 cohort includes Adheep Das with Puran Bhatt, Akshay Bhatt and Varun Bhatt (puppeteers) and filmmaker Margaux Dauby; Bao; Maya.nk; Saroj Kumar Badatya; Untitled Kitchen in collaboration with Karuppu Art Studio; and Reshma Khatoon, who has received extended support. The fellows will develop their projects between June 2026 and March 2027 through financial support, mentorship and opportunities for public engagement.

Spanning diverse communities and geographies, the projects engage with cultural memory, ecological knowledge, feminist pedagogies, accessibility, food, archives, traditional craft and collective care. The programme will culminate in a major public presentation at the Serendipity Arts Festival 2028 in Panjim, Goa, bringing projects developed across its three cohorts into conversation.

Among the selected projects, Adheep Das works with Delhi’s Rajasthani kathputli community to explore storytelling and migration through puppetry and film; Bao draws on anti-caste feminist histories to imagine a public classroom rooted in collective learning; Maya.nk explores memory, archives and participatory image-making; Saroj Kumar Badatya creates living ecological archives connecting agriculture, grasslands and traditional knowledge across Odisha and Ladakh; while Untitled Kitchen and Karuppu Art Studio explore food, gathering and shared making as tools for community-building. Reshma Khatoon’s Maa Ki Baat transforms personal narratives of motherhood into collective acts of remembrance through embroidery, drawing and printmaking.

“The most lasting art rarely begins in a studio alone; it begins in conversation — with a community, a landscape and a shared history. Through our partnership with FICA, Futures in Formation gives artists the time and support to work that way, and to reimagine what art in public life can be,” said Shefali Munjal, Co-Founder & Patron of Serendipity Arts.

Vidya Shivadas, Director of FICA, added, “Public art today is no longer defined only by monumental sculptures in physical sites. Its sensibility is increasingly shaped by collaborations, care, long-term immersion in places, memories, ecologies and lived experiences. The projects selected for this edition expand our understanding of what constitutes art in the public realm.”

Building on FICA’s pioneering Public Art Grant and Serendipity Arts’ commitment to interdisciplinary artistic practice, Smriti Rajgarhia, Director of Serendipity Arts, said, “Futures in Formation creates space for artists who are reimagining how art exists in public life. This year’s cohort reflects the diversity of contemporary artistic practice in India, inviting new forms of dialogue, participation and collective imagination.”