Holipura Arts & Residency
The Arts & Residency Hub is envisioned as a dynamic cultural platform that brings together artists, local communities, and the natural landscape to celebrate creativity, heritage, and collaboration. Rooted in the values of sustainability and community engagement, the Hub aims to foster a thriving ecosystem of expression and cultural revival in rural India.
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• Year-Round Artist Residencies with Community Workshops
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We will offer an immersive, year-round residency program for artists, writers, and creatives from across disciplines. Residents live and work within the community, drawing inspiration from the region’s landscape, traditions, and people. These residencies are complemented by participatory workshops where local youth and artisans are invited to co-create, learn, and engage in hands-on creative exploration—building skills, stories, and shared experiences.
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• Pop-Up Galleries, Performances & Heritage Restoration
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To bridge local and global audiences, the Hub will host curated pop-up exhibitions, open studios, and site-specific performances in both natural and restored heritage spaces. These events create visibility for emerging and established artists while activating forgotten or underused cultural sites. Heritage restoration initiatives aim to preserve traditional architecture and oral histories, transforming them into living, functional cultural spaces.
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• Annual / Biennale / Triennale
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In addition to ongoing programs, the Hub will host flagship festivals—annual, biennial, or triennial—celebrations that serve as a convergence point for artists, scholars, and visitors. These festivals will showcase the best of rural contemporary art, interdisciplinary collaboration, and sustainability-focused design, positioning the region as a unique cultural destination.
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Together, these elements create a vibrant rural arts ecosystem—nurturing creativity, preserving heritage, and fostering deep community connections through the transformative power of the arts.
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At the confluence of winter’s retreat and spring’s arrival, RIVER invites ten artists—five from India and five from the UK—to gather at Mela Kothi, near the Chambal River, one of India’s most pristine and protected ecosystems. This residency is not a production-driven retreat but an invitation to pause, observe, and respond to a landscape where absence and presence, myth and ecology, silence and life coexist.
Set in Jarar village, surrounded by temples, oral histories, and agrarian rhythms, RIVER offers a reflective space where the untouched meets the inhabited, and the sacred meets the everyday. Over eight days, artists will immerse themselves in the natural, social, and spiritual fabric of the region—guided by ideas of care, conservation, and context.
RIVER’s ethos is process-led and site-responsive. Artists are encouraged to bring lightness, curiosity, and openness—to create through listening rather than assertion, allowing slowness, stillness, and uncertainty to shape their inquiry. Their practices—across sound, sculpture, text, film, performance, or research—may evolve organically, even after departure.
THE OPPORTUNITY- WHY HOLIPURA
At the heart of Regenerate India lies a model that transforms heritage into holistic impact — social, economic, cultural, and environmental.
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Socially, it empowers tribal and rural communities by restoring cultural pride and creating sustainable livelihoods through the arts.
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Economically, it builds a self-sustaining ecosystem— where tourism, hospitality, crafts, and global patronage generate recurring revenue streams.
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Culturally, it charts a pathway toward UNESCO recognition, positioning Holipura as India’s first rural arts hub of global repute.
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Environmentally, it embodies low-carbon, heritage-led regeneration, fully aligned with ESG principles and sustainable development goals.
Together, these pillars make Regenerate India not just a cultural initiative — but a blueprint for regenerative growth that unites people, place, and planet.
The images below are from the Mela Kothi-Chambal Safari Lodge, which is located in Jarar. It belongs to our strategic partner and is also the site for the first artist residency programme of Regenerate India.
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website: https://www.chambalsafari.com/
