Mumbai is about to transform its Natwar Parekh Compound in Govandi (W) into a phenomenal hub of creativity. Set to run from December 10 to 14, 2025, the Govandi Arts Festival (GAF) is a community-led cultural movement that seeks to reclaim and transform the socio-spatial narrative of Govandi, a marginalised suburb in Mumbai. The festival uses performative and visual arts to challenge stigma and showcase the “spirit and resilience” of the community. Its first edition was aired in February 2023, featuring exhibitions, screenings, performances, workshops, and a much-celebrated lantern parade through the neighbourhood, working with local youth and external mentors. According to the festival’s organisers, this festival is a part of a larger mission to build an alternative indoctrination that is rooted in the lived experiences and creativity of Govandi’s residents.
The festival originated through the participatory work of the Community Design Agency (CDA), which, since 2016, has engaged with residents to reimagine and improve inadequate built spaces. In the words of the co-founders and co-curators of the festival, Natasha Sharma and Parveen Shaikh, the idea of the festival emerged from the desire to highlight the creative resilience thriving within the community. Parveen is a Govandi resident herself and has set the goal to show the world how life in Govandi is changing through art, replacing grim news articles with rap songs, short films, and success stories.
What To Expect
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This year, the festival will bring together more than 100 artists from across Govandi — including youth, women, and transgender individuals, working with 25+ mentors and collaborators across 10+ art forms. The art forms range from game design and textile arts to filmmaking, theatre, and more. Beyond these, there will be interactive games and community-driven exhibitions as well. Also, a beautiful lantern procession is planned to illuminate the streets of Govandi. Such processions have been a signature of the festival since its inception, when external collaborators such as Lamplighter Arts CIC (UK) supported the community-based lantern-making and parade.
The inclusivity of the festival is well reflected through the residency in which transgender artists from the Govandi community are co-creating a composite mural and textile-based artwork in partnership with transgender artists from the Aravani Art Project, a Mumbai-based collective. This project aims to open new avenues for transgender inclusion in the arts, encouraging individuals from the community to step into public spaces with pride. Their art is highly reflective of their lived realities, aspirations, and spirit.
Exhibition details
| Event | Details |
|---|---|
| Festival Dates | 10–14 December 2025 |
| Venue | Public Ground, Natwar Parekh Compound, Govandi (W), Mumbai |
| Timings | 2–10 pm |
| Organisers & Curators | Natasha Sharma, Parveen Shaikh |
| Key Support | IMC India, UNESCO x SEVENTEEN’s Going Together Grant Scheme 2025, Community Design Agency |
| Host | The community of Natwar Parekh Colony |
Why Does It Matter?
Govandi, for decades, bore the stigmatized label of being a slum and was often associated with danger and neglect. According to the founders, labels like this are highly reductionist and tend to suppress the creative urge of the people of that area, especially the youth. What GAF does goes beyond the projection of canvases; it empowers locals by making them “seen” in the public sphere, by centering them as the center of conversation in a constructive way. The festival aims to provide access, exposure, and agency to the residents who are geographically and culturally marginalized.
Moreover, the festival’s agenda involves creating a long-term impact so that, even after the event comes to an end, young participants continue to engage in the discourse of their artistic creations. Their approach is well celebrated by stakeholders, including the Global Cultural District Network (GCDN), as a model for community-focused culture festivals. This festival is unique as it uses art as a tool to develop a new wave of engagement and offer a fresh lens to the mainstream population to look beyond the prejudices associated with them. This festival celebrates resilience and creativity at a local and global scale, rather than reducing the area to a place of ‘have-nots.’
Key Highlights
- Over 100 local artists (youth, women, transgender) collaborating across 10+ art forms.
- A full suite of creative activities: workshops, film screenings, theatre performances, exhibitions, games, and more.
- Lantern procession, a public art parade weaving through the lanes of Govandi, reclaiming neighbourhood space.
- Transgender-inclusive mural and textile art created in collaboration with the Aravani Art Project.
- Deeply rooted in themes like collective care, friendship, migration, and gender identity.
- Mentorship and community-embedded residencies, ensuring long-term impact beyond the 5-day festival.
- Includes the launch of the board game ‘Gully Mohalla’, which revolves around planning a better neighbourhood.
What Is The Bigger Picture?
This festival re-asserts the universal character of art that does not remain contained to some groups, but belongs to every neighbourhood. The festival puts our attention towards the fact that communities often written off as “marginalised” have stories, talents, dreams, and voices waiting to be heard. For India’s financial capital, where gentrification, socio-economic divides, and marginalisation shape lived experiences, GAF stands out as a model of grassroots cultural democracy and collective agency. The 2025 edition of GAF aims to renew a “hope” in the people of Govandi by offering them a chance to redefine their neighbourhood through their creativity and a sense of humanity.
The bigger picture can be seen in tangible outcomes, as filmmaking mentees like Sana Shaikh and Ifra Khan have had their films selected for national and international film festivals, including the New York Independent Film Festival and the International Film Festival of Kerala. Rap artists who emerged from the mentorships, such as ‘Code 43,’ have performed at major events like the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. The festival has also successfully catalyzed infrastructural improvements, such as the reclamation of the Public Ground. Overall, it provides an incredible impetus for greater action, which begins as a nucleated approach, but gradually unfurls into something that brings about ‘real change’ in society.
Takeaway
Thus, GAF is a radical act of reclaiming dignity and space from the hitherto prejudiced remarks of people. It is an essential reminder about creativity, identity, and ‘sense’ of community that belongs everywhere. It is a statement that art does not belong to elite galleries or city-centred stages alone; art also breathes in the burning realities of ‘neglected’ people. This festival disrupts the so-called ‘conventional hegemonic narratives’ of art and redefines artistic practice on a massive scale. This festival deserves to be recognized as one of the most vital cultural interventions in Mumbai. The GAF compels the larger city to perceive Govandi not as a ‘ghetto’, but as a source of powerful, homegrown talent and a model of creative, community-led change.
