Every January, Bengaluru turns into a bustling corridor of colour, where pavements are adorned with oversized palettes and canvases featuring a plethora of scenes. The annual Chitrasanthe (Chitra Santhe), meaning ‘Art Market’ in Kannada, is a democratic street celebration of creativity that transforms Bengaluru into India’s largest open-air art gallery. Hosted by the prestigious Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath (CKP), this single-day festival aims to make art accessible to all. For thousands of artists, students, collectors, and the general public, the event is a republic of imagination. This festival shall unite over 1,500 artists from different parts of India, drawing a crowd of more than 7 lakh art enthusiasts.
Celebrating Art for All
Founded in 1960, the CKP is a visual arts complex and institution that has been a landmark in India’s cultural landscape for over six decades. It played a major role in developing the art vocabulary of the city, nurturing students, staging exhibitions, and acting as Bangalore’s creative circuit. It is the grandest annual compilation of artistic events. Inspired partly by European street art fairs and by our age-old haat culture, the festival blends professional curation with creative chaos. People will trace trace traditional Indian artforms such as Mysore paintings, leather puppets, and Pyrography (art created by burning designs onto wood) alongside modern abstract art, contemporary compositions, graphic prints, stone sculptures, and caricatures.
The recent editions have recorded artwork sales exceeding ₹5 crore in a single day, highlighting the substantial economic impact of the event and its centrality as a commercial platform amidst the creative community. The prime aspect of this festival single handedly lies in its heterogeneity and inclusivity.
A Walk Through
Longtime attendees describe Chitrasanthe as an immersive sensory experience. People trace artworks across a plethora of media, ranging from hyper-realistic landscapes to delicate pen-and-ink miniatures, as they chip in to form a colourful facade. Each stall seems to narrate a story on its own, describing the different artworks featured all over. Unlike formal and stringent gallery spaces, where people are mostly afraid of striking a conversation, Chitrasanthe encourages dialogue and exchange. Every artwork has a personal backstory, and every artist is reachable, visible, and human.
Democratization of the Art Market
Art fairs can often feel exclusive, but Chitrasanthe encapsulates all major trends and displays a deliberate defiance towards being exclusive. It is more of an umbrella ceiling which includes everything starting from small sketches under a few hundred rupees to large canvases worthy of serious collectors. For many Bengaluru folks, this yearly festival has become a ritual; a place to purchase their first artwork, support student-artists, and carry home a piece belonging to the larger creative nexus of India.
This festival is also a ground for cultural education, as many schools bring their students for a visit, NGOs bring young learners, and travellers arrive to immerse into the world of street-gallery experience. In a nutshell, there is something for everyone. The artworks featured on different media just does not remain intact within the plane, it bursts out as a public memory.
Event Details
| Important Points | Details |
|---|---|
| Event Name | Chitrasanthe 2026 – The People’s Art Festival |
| Date | Sunday, 4th January 2026 |
| Timings | 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM |
| Venue | Kumara Krupa Road, Bengaluru |
| Organizing Body | Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath (CKP) |
| Associated Institution | College of Fine Arts (CFA) |
| Participating Artists | 1,500+ artists from across India |
| Expected Footfall | Over 7,00,000 visitors |
| Motto | “Art for All” – celebrating inclusivity and creativity |
| Artist Registration Deadline | 30th November 2025 |
Key Highlights
- More than 1500 artists exhibit paintings, drawings, sculptures, folk art, digital works, and mixed-media experiments
- The festival stretches across the entire Kumara Krupa Road, transforming it into a kilometre-long open gallery
- Participation from senior masters, mid-career artists, art students, and emerging independent illustrators
- Over 7 lakh visitors attend every year, making it one of India’s largest public cultural gatherings
- A rare democratic platform where art is sold directly by its maker, removing gallery gatekeeping
- Consistent presence of Kannada, folk, tribal, and contemporary art traditions
- Cultural performances, live demonstrations, interactive stalls, and student showcases
- A long-running legacy that has remained accessible, affordable, and unpretentious
A Celebration That Goes Beyond Transactions
Chitrasanthe builds community. It is the melting pot for a linguistically diverse crowd which stitches together many sensibilities and generate a sentiment of belonging. The festival also attracts the performances of many musicians, puppet artists, etc., who appear without fanfare, yet perform wholeheartedly for the greater crowd. This way, it has seeked much national attention and eventually Bengaluru associates this festival with its cultural identity. They also make sure that the upcoming editions adapt well to the emerging artistic waves and generation of artists, in order to provide the befitting spot to showcase their talent, while also venerating the old.
Takeaway
An emerging trend in the artistic sphere is to restrict it to commercial boxes, but this festival feels different, as it not only generates revenue, but also offers a very refreshing perspective towards art. It reminds us that for creative to thrive, openness is required. It makes innumerable strangers meet and greet eachother, fostering an amiable environment. It lets the artists breath out of their protected ecosystem and get exposed to the unexplored, getting approach dby people on ground zero and making contacts, holding the most candid and raw conversations to striking a deal. They are bringing good quality art to the pedestrian lanes in order to make it accessible to all, irrespective of any parametre. This is where the art can be touched, questioned, debated, and loved without any hesitation following.
View this post on Instagram
The forthcoming 23rd edition is definitely taking the legacy forward and perhaps will stretch it further. For anyone who believes that art should belong to the society as a whole, Chitrasanthe can actually be a pilgrimage spot for those. So, if you happen to be in Bengaluru on January 4th 2026, don’t forget to bury your steps into this immersive environment. You may enter as a visitor, but you almost always leave as a collector of stories.
