Asian Paints’ decade-long partnership with the St+art India Foundation advances its vision of ‘Art for All’ by making public art more accessible, inclusive and rooted in everyday urban life. The collaboration transforms public spaces into shared creative expressions, bringing colour, creativity and community engagement into cities. Over the years, it has expanded the reach of public art through murals, community-led initiatives and collaborations with artists and institutions, enabling people to experience and connect with their surroundings in meaningful ways.
Ten years of art for all: A reflection on the partnership
Over the past decade, the partnership has evolved across three reinforcing dimensions:
- From individual murals to public art districts, moving beyond standalone artworks to sustained transformations of urban neighbourhoods such as Lodhi in Delhi, Sassoon Dock in Mumbai, Ukkadam in Coimbatore and Ballygunge in Kolkata
- From urban centres to India’s frontiers, extending the reach of public art to cultural and geographic edges through the St+art Frontier series, including Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and other border-region geographies
- From visual expression to social intervention, using public art to support neurodivergent learning, celebrate tribal and regional craft traditions, honour institutional heritage and convert neglected public spaces into community-anchored Hyper Parks
Across the decade, the partnership has contributed to 700+ public art sites across 29+ Indian cities, organised through seven public art districts that continue to serve as living cultural assets for the communities they anchor.
St+art Kolkata
In Kolkata, the festival reimagined the Ballygunge neighbourhood as a shared cultural environment, drawing inspiration from the city’s enduring tradition of ‘adda’ – the unhurried, place-anchored conversations that have shaped Kolkata’s intellectual and cultural identity across generations. The intervention explored how public spaces foster connection, interaction and belonging, blending art, colour, poetry and sensory storytelling.
The result was an invitation for citizens to pause, connect and rediscover Kolkata not as a city of monuments but as a living canvas of community, culture and creative expression, a city to be inhabited, not merely passed through. St+art Kolkata exemplifies how public art partnerships can amplify, rather than reshape, the cultural DNA of the communities they engage with.
Project Udaan
In Vadodara, Project Udaan extended Asian Paints’ ‘Art for All’ vision to learning environments for neurodivergent children. In collaboration with the St+art India Foundation, Asian Paints transformed the Arpan Charitable Trust facility into a sensory learning space designed to support children with diverse cognitive and developmental needs.
Inspired by the butterfly, a symbol associated with neurodiversity, the project used art, colour and material innovation as functional therapeutic elements rather than decoration. Carefully selected palettes, textures, sightlines and interactive surfaces were designed around the children’s specific needs to support comfort, sensory engagement, predictability and self-expression.
Project Udaan demonstrates how creative practice can move beyond public-space transformation to support inclusion within everyday social infrastructure.
The 10th anniversary edition of the Lodhi Art Festival, themed ‘Dilate All Art Spaces’, expanded both the physical and conceptual reach of public art. The 2026 edition added six new murals across the Lodhi Art District, further transforming the neighbourhood into an open canvas for creative dialogue.
A key highlight was ‘Garden of Encounters’, a cross-cultural mural by Spanish artist Suso33 and Delhi-based artists Ishaan Bharat and Tarini Sethi. Inaugurated by Pedro Sánchez, the work reflected Indo-Spanish cultural exchange and invited residents and visitors to engage with public art as a shared experience.
Lodhi Art Festival
Over the past decade, the Lodhi Art District has evolved into a cultural destination and community asset, demonstrating how public art can enrich urban life. The anniversary edition reaffirmed the partnership’s longevity and continuing artistic relevance.
