Serendipity Arts Festival begins at Panjim amid much fanfare

Team L&M

The streets of Panjim have come alive with the launch of the 9-day Serendipity Arts Festival. An initiative by the Serendipity Arts Foundation, this inter-disciplinary art festival that kick-started today at Panjim, Goa. The festival ends on December 23.

In its fifth physical edition the festival remains true to its core values and, at the same time, envisages propagating art and culture, ushering in ways to explore and enhance public involvement and engagement. Taking place across 14+ venues, and 120+ programs, with 1000+ artists, the organisers are committed to creating a sustainable, collaborative, and collective platform to highlight the shared cultural heritage of South Asia and create a global outreach.

Speaking at the inaugural function, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Pandurang Sawant said, “Goa is the melting pot for culture, and we want people to enjoy community and the arts. While it is the responsibility of the state to boost tourism in Goa we need Foundations and patrons like Serendipity Arts to give the much-needed impetus to the arts movement and to strengthen culture. I hope that this festival will inspire the arts community at large to make Panjim and Goa the culture hub for the region.”

This year the programme is in association with GMR, and supported by the Government of Goa, the Corporation of The City of Panaji, the Directorate of Art and Culture, Goa, Entertainment Society of Goa, Goa Tourism Department and the Goa Forest Department, along with Technology partner Microsoft, and Logistics Partner Delhivery.

Through the festival there will be art exhibitions, culinary delights, craft, and music events that will reflect Indian classical, fusion, folk, indie pop, rock, and other genres, projects on dance, drama, music performances, Talk shows, workshops, Public Arts Projects, Accessibility and Children’s Programmes and storytelling etc.

The curatorial line-up for this edition will include Bickram Ghosh, Ehsaan Noorani, Sudarshan Shetty, Veerangana Solanki, Pramod Kumar KG, Anjana Somany, Prahlad Sukhtankar, Mayuri Upadhya, Geeta Chandran and Quasar Thakore Padamsee.

“It gives us great joy to be back in Goa with for its fifth physical edition after a gap of almost three years. This year we are also trying to take interdisciplinarity to a different level. We have experimented with different forms and intersections, hoping it will leave a lasting impression with audiences and visitors with the quality of projects, diverse art practices and creative experimentations within the arts,” said Sunil Kant Munjal, Founder and Patron of Serendipity Arts Foundation.

The festival also promises an engaging and immersive line-up of Special Projects, curated by Shyamant Behal, Dr. Jyotindra Jain and Jutta Jain-Neubauer, Rahab Allana and Pascal Beausse, Lina Vincent and Akshay Mahajan among others.