Business Wire India

Having seen an incredible response from visitors at the Sassoon Dock Art Project, St+art India Foundation with support from Asian Paints, announces the beginning of the Mahim (E) Art District as part of the St+art Mumbai 2017 Urban Art Festival.
 
Once complete, the Mahim (E) Art District will be St+art India's second public open-air art district and will witness the coming together of Indian and international artists and urban designers regenerating several of Mahim (E)'s common spaces and transforming them into vibrant art spaces. The project aims to create a public art district by populating the Shahu Nagar colony till 60 feet road – with large size murals and urban design interventions.
 
Over the next few weeks, Indian and international artists will work to create around large murals on the facades of Shahu Nagar arriving till 60 feet road and also tactical cost-effective and creative urban design interventions along with communities to generate a permanent improvement of the neighbourhood.
 
Thanish Thomas, Project Director and Co-founder, St+art India Foundation said, "Mahim (E) Art District will be St+art India Foundation's second public art district after the Lodhi Art District in New Delhi. With the aim of making art accessible to everyone, the art district will encourage people – who generally might not venture into Shahu Nagar and Mahim (E) – to re-discover this very vibrant space. By being as contextual to the local narrative and using the street as a canvas for visual creativity we will be curating works of emerging and established artists from India and across the world in weeks to come. Thanks to the support of all our partners, especially Asian Paints and BMC without whom this would not have been possible."
 
Mr. Amit Syngle, COO, Asian Paints Ltd. said "Indian cities are known for their rich history and heritage. We feel art is for everyone to see and bringing out art from the closed and plush confines of art galleries to public places is what we have been encouraging. Through Asian Paints and St+art India Foundation's association we tend to reinvent public spaces by means of art and culture. This is the third phase of the refurbishing project in Mumbai. It's wonderful to see how aesthetically it adds significance to our cities and creates uniqueness to our communities. Asian Paints is elated to support St +art Indian Foundation and national and international artists as they set out to paint landmark locations of Mumbai in unique colors and concepts."
 
Starting from the facades which are facing the tracks of the Western Railway, St+art India Foundation has collaborated with Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to invite people to discover the area of Mahim and Shahu Nagar which will become a vibrant and inspiring location with an inflow of tourism, at the same time improving this location thanks to the interventions by renowned Indian and international artists.
 
The city of Mumbai as we know it today was only formed in 1854. Up until then, this region constituted 7 islands of Bombay, Parel, Mazagaon, Mahim, Worli, Colaba and Little Colaba. The reclamation of this land was followed by the construction of roadways and the railways which is now the lifeline of the city. Mahim East covers within its territory, the Matunga Labour Camp, Dharavi slums and Shahu Nagar. This entire region is often identified as Dharavi with the slums, labour camp and Shahu Nagar lying within it. Dharavi is a land of immense resources and in terms of entrepreneurial skill-sets as well as materials which are daily recycled and produced here. Showcasing this richness and activating local resources in and for their own spaces is one of the primary intents of the public art intervention in Mahim (E).
 
Artist line up for Mahim (E) Art District

• Avinash Kumar

• Guido Van Helten

• Locopopo

• Pragyesh Parmar

• Sajid Wajid

Mahim (E) Art District aims to create a positive impact on the area and its residents, while also paving the way towards making people more conscious about their environment. Furthermore, various range of activities such as curated tours and jams will be organised with direct involvement of the residents/locals. About St+art India Foundation

St+art India Foundation is an organisation formed on the principle of 'Art for All' and works on art projects in public spaces. The aim of the foundation is to make art accessible to a wider audience by taking it out of the conventional gallery space and embedding it within the cities we live in – making art truly democratic and for everyone.

Across the past 3 years, the foundation has organised 6 St+art festivals and numerous public art projects in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad creating iconic landmarks within all these cities. Each new edition of festivals and public art districts brings to civic spaces curated interventions, which are embedded in urban culture, and activate alternative spaces for art enabling people to reimagine how public spaces can be utilised.  For the foundation, which has been responsible for making urban art a movement in India, public art interventions are a celebration of the street as a canvas for visual creativity.
 
About Asian Paints

Since its foundation in 1942, Asian Paints has come a long way to become India's leading and Asia's fourth largest paint company, with a turnover of Rs. 170.85 billion. Asian Paints operates in 19 countries and have 26 paint manufacturing facilities in the world, servicing consumers in over 65 countries. Asian Paints has always been a leader in the paint industry, pushing new concepts in India like Colour Ideas, Home Solutions, Colour Next, and Kids' World.