Near Kanakapura, Bengaluru
The DrishyAM Art Village
Where dialogues become discoveries.
A visionary creative campus
The village is designed around the timeless Guru–Shishya tradition: a place where recognised masters mentor emerging talent across the five creative streams, and where the making is visible to anyone who walks through.
Architecture is deliberately quiet and local — laterite, rammed earth, terracotta tile, deep verandahs, courtyards that hold old trees, water that is harvested rather than imported. Buildings sit low in the landscape and follow its slope.
More than an art village, DrishyAM is a living ecosystem where creativity, innovation and community come together through residencies, workshops, performances, exhibitions and cultural dialogue.
What is being built
Six kinds of room
Studios & workshops
Working spaces for painting, sculpture, ceramics, textiles and wood — built for dust, heat, kilns and looms, not just for display.
Residencies
Long and short residencies for Indian and international artists, with living quarters, studio time and the company of other makers.
An open-air stage
An amphitheatre for dance, music, theatre and storytelling, where a village audience and a visiting company share the same evening.
Learning & mentorship
Guru–Shishya apprenticeships, school outreach, youth mentorship and skills training that lead to real livelihoods.
Heritage conservation
Documenting and sustaining tribal and folk traditions — craft, motif, song and technique — as living practice rather than archive.
Nature & wellbeing
Groves, water, walking paths, yoga and holistic arts. The land is part of the curriculum, not the backdrop.
The landscape around the site — red earth, granite, coconut groves and water.
Livelihoods, not charity
ArtMantram’s work with tribal youth and artisan families around Bandipur and Gundlupet — skills training, placements with resorts and lodges, school outreach and scholarships — carries into DrishyAM as a permanent commitment: craft that pays, and dignity that lasts.
Slowness as design
Svasti — wellbeing — is woven through the campus rather than parked in a wing: morning practice, walking, colour therapy, mindfulness and rest are treated as part of how good work gets made.
Brick by brick, heart by heart
Help build the village
Every contribution becomes a building block of creativity, culture and community — a studio floor, a kiln, a scholarship, a season of performances.
Ways to support