Ahmedabad, the Manchester of India, is transforming its artistic facade by celebrating Abhivyakti – The City Arts Project for its 7th edition in 2025. This is a city-wide festival that includes theatre, music, dance, and visual art, which transforms campus lawns, auditoria, and gallery spaces into stages for conversation and experimentation. Running from 14-30 November 2025, across multiple venues, including the Gujarat University, ATIRA, and the Shreyas Foundation, it presents an immersive two-week programme that elevates the festive mood of the whole city. This cultural extravaganza is dedicated to making art accessible to anyone and everyone, shining a spotlight on established as well as emerging artists. During this time, the city’s artistic fervour definitely gets an adrenaline rush.
The core mission behind the functioning of this festival is to mitigate the gap between artists and audience by offering a safe space for expression and evolution, that too free of cost. This incredible project is spearheaded by the UNM Foundation, which is also a committed player in the field of healthcare and education. Since its inception in 2018, the Abhivyakti has developed into an event of national appeal. It has supported hundreds of artists and premiered over 400 original productions.
Orchestrating Pan-Indian Talent
View this post on Instagram
The most striking feature of this year’s edition is the scale of the event itself. The organizers have scheduled 140+ performances by artists hailing from 45 cities across 16 states of India, spanning theatre productions to music nights and visual-art installations. The theme selected for this year’s edition is “Stories waiting to be told,” giving primacy to contemporary artistic expression. The program is set to host over 220 shows covering multiple disciplines, ensuring an immersive experience for all attendees.
The visual-arts segment in particular requires attention, which is now featuring 62 installations. The inaugural performance, the theatrical dance-musical ‘Mumbai Star,’ directed by Nadir Khan and narrated by Rajit Kapur and Srishti Shrivastava, set a high standard for the event. Thus, the UNM Foundation has aptly situated Abhivyakti as an accessible, community-oriented project that emphasizes grassroots creativity.
The festival also incorporates initiatives aimed at inclusivity, such as arranging special visits for children from local slums and senior citizens from care homes under the UNM Foundation’s Ujaas programme, truly embodying the spirit of “Art Without Barriers.”
Event Details
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Title | Abhivyakti – The City Arts Project (7th Edition) |
| Organiser | UNM Foundation (@unm_foundation) |
| Dates | November 14–30, 2025 (15 days) |
| Key Venues | Gujarat University Campus, ATIRA, Shreyas Foundation Campus |
| Theme | “Stories waiting to be told” |
| Participation | Over 140 artists from 45 cities across 16 states |
| Entry | Free of cost (Accessible Art) |
Key highlights
- Opening weekend premieres and music-theatre collaborations that set a theatrical tone for the fortnight.
- Large-scale, site-specific visual installations that invite walking tours across campuses.
- Free or low-cost public programming intended to widen audience access beyond typical gallery-goers.
- A line-up combining local Gujarati artists and national practitioners, creating cross-regional conversations.
- Workshops, panels, and outreach events engaging young artists and students make the festival pedagogical and performative.
A Truly Inclusive Space
Abhivyakti can be rightly labeled as a cultural movement that is single-handedly redefining Ahmedabad’s art and cultural scene. By incorporating inclusive principles like free access to international-quality art for all social strata, this festival is actively debunking the historical association of being delighted by art trapped within the privileged quarters. The massive scale, the heterogeneity, and the multi-venue model clearly reflect the efforts put behind the grand celebration. It is not just presenting art in front of the public gaze, but also yielding a culture of appreciation and consciousness regarding the Indian craft.
Today, cultural experiences are many, but are highly monetized and subjected to commercial interests; however, Abhivyakti is a counterweight to that. It is a space where a student, a novice, and an art connoisseur can intermingle and weave a composite environment.
Well, there is one point to be noted. With such a dense multi-venue schedule, there could be a risk of high attention-tax demand from the audience, as multiple events run simultaneously. Thus, a digital or physical pocket-friendly event schedule can be given to everyone attending the festival, so that people can navigate better and can enjoy to the fullest. In a nutshell, Abhivyakti is fueling the creative engine of not only Ahmedabad but, the entire nation.
