Keli is now entering into the 35 th year of Art meditations
The 35-year celebrations of Keli will unfold across 5 states, featuring 8 festivals, at 8 venues, with the participation and support of 50 artists.
Details of the programs will be announced in September 2026Theme of the series:
Art Intersections and Confluences in Gender
October 2026 – March 2027
The Journey: Thirty-Five Years of Keli
For the past 35 years, Keli has remained committed to the preservation, promotion, and development of India'ss folk, traditional, and classical performing arts. Through sustained programming, documentation, research, and public engagement, the organization has evolved into one of Mumbai's leading cultural institutions dedicated to safeguarding India's intangible
cultural heritage.
As Keli celebrates its 35th anniversary, it proposes a landmark national programme that reflects upon the changing role of the arts in contemporary society.
KELI@35: Art Intersections and Confluences in Gender
Art has never existed in isolation. Every artistic tradition evolves through continuous interaction with history, society, politics, anthropology, philosophy, technology, and lived experience. These intersections shape artistic languages, performance practices, aesthetics, material cultures, audiences, and institutions.
KELI@35 proposes a six-month multidisciplinary programme that explores these intersections,with a special emphasis on gender as a lens through which artistic traditions may be re-examined and re-imagined.
Moving beyond conventional festivals and academic conferences, the project combines scholarship, dialogue, performance, film, documentation and public participation to create meaningful encounters between artists, scholars, students, and audiences across India.
The project focuses on six interconnected dimensions:
Body
Music and Sound
Gender
Sites and Spaces
Time
Public Engagement
Through lectures, conversations, lecture-demonstrations, film screenings, workshops, and live performances, the project demonstrates how artistic traditions negotiate continuity and change while responding to evolving social realities and cross-cultural exchanges. Rather than presenting art merely as performance, KELI@35 positions it as a space for reflection, dialogue, and cultural understanding.
In Memoriam: Maa Annapoorna
The 2026–27 edition of KELI@35 is dedicated to the memory of Maa Annapoorna Devi, one of India's greatest yet most reclusive musical legends.
Her extraordinary artistic journey raises profound questions about gender, creativity, visibility, and artistic agency. It continues to inspire critical reflection on the structural challenges faced by women artists and the immeasurable cultural loss resulting from exclusion and unequal opportunity.
By dedicating this programme to her memory, Keli seeks to celebrate not only her unparalleled artistic legacy but also the countless women whose contributions have enriched India's artistic traditions despite social and institutional barriers.
Objectives
The project seeks to:
Encourage dialogue between performing arts and contemporary social thought.
Explore gender through artistic practice and cultural history.
Present traditional art forms within contemporary intellectual frameworks.
Build new and informed audiences for India's performing arts.
Facilitate interaction among artists, scholars, researchers, and students.
Promote interdisciplinary engagement across the humanities, social sciences, and the arts.
Document and disseminate the knowledge generated through the project.
Programme Components
The project includes:
Rhythm and dance festivals
Lecture-demonstrations
Public lectures and conversations
Academic presentations
Documentary and feature film screenings
Traditional performance presentations
Interactive sessions with artists
Student and community outreach programmes
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