About Us

Behala Art Fest is a non-commercial entity and the desired platform by many artists.

We connect people from different fields of art. It’s interstices between colliding cultures, a liminal space which gives rise to something different, something new. A new area of negotiation of meaning and representation. Artists at work in the space speak of a creative edge that derives from the condition of being in a place that simultaneously is and is not one’s field.

BAF Mission & Vision

Mission: The organizing committee’s mission is to produce the annual event “Behala Art Fest” to conglomerate and nurture artistic talents associated regardless of boundaries. The core intent is to set art free from enclosed and specific arenas, present it to ordinary people, and create a chance of public interaction. We believe the experience of Behala Art Fest will create an upbeat vibe and bring art close to the mass. It goes hand in hand with our mantra – Art For People’s sake.

Vision: Behala Art Fest aims to transform the Artscape so that a commonwealth can be built of some self aware folks who can participate in critical thinking. So that knowledge can be distributed in an unbiased way. This can build a democratic demography It may bring us a better morrow.

Convenor Speaks

Zen Z of Behala Nutan Sangha and I decided to do something which may speak for the time ahead. So we determined to start a curated art festival, and all agreed that I should take responsibility as the convenor of the art fest, as I am and practicing artist. Now being a practicing artist, I have had some privilege to understand where we, the artist, mainly belong. We all have positive and effective ways and some not-so-promising spaces within the art field. I will start with the way we practice. We, till today, focus too much on formal training and skill development. Analytical studies and critical thinking have not been much in our practice. We grew up in a society where parents take their kids to shopping malls but not to the art museums or galleries or any music concerts. We mostly come to know about the world Masters of painting, sculpture, music, or even cinema when we pursue that particular course of studies. So it takes almost a lifetime to perceive those thoughts critically. Though none of these are in our hands, we cannot change how it is. But what we could do is make another space where this kind of critical thought will be practiced. Behala Art Fest is a much-needed public forum. A democratic space for unbiased conversation to take place. A public space where artists from different practices – be it painting, sculptures, music, performance anything can come and address the mass. We want to be inclusive, democratic, and as unbiased as possible. We, the team of Behala at first, offer a few activities to the artist. The most important among them is the workshops we arrange. During the pandemic, we could only provide 5 to 6 workshops with literature and documents for further studies, but we intend to extend that further. As it is a curated art fest, the professors and the lecturers from different universities help us do that. Another essential feature of a Behala Art Fest is a non-commercial platform. By that, I mean we do not pressure the artist under any circumstances to sell an idea or artwork in any form to another entity. Our job as a committee is to give an artist a free hand. Working with Behala art fest is a choice but also maintaining rules and being guided by the moderators comes as a responsibility. The moderator decides to include any particular artwork or exclude them genuinely based on merit. In the coming years, we hope to see more inclusion in the process. We want to stay flexible as much as possible to accommodate different artists from different principles. We may also promise to be more transparent as we grow and evaluate ourselves with the feedback we get. We can foresee that the connection between the public and artists will grow more robust than before if we stick to the principles. The community practice will be stronger and bolder in the same way.

I, as the convenor of Behala Art Fest, will urge our viewers and our community to have patience and have faith in us and encourage us to grow. Without the local community of Behala, none of our dreams will become a reality. We are also very much obliged to our guides and moderators. Without their counseling, we could not make the space so upskill. Salute to Behala Nutan Sangha for letting your private space grow into public.