Hampi Art Labs is an arts centre located near the UNESCO World Heritage Site Hampi in the South of India, opening in February 2024. Set across 9-acres of landscape, the centre offers artists unique production facilities, an environment to creatively retreat in and galleries for world-class display. The site comprises exhibition spaces, studios and apartments for residencies, gardens, and a café.

Evolving from a legacy of supporting art and heritage in India for over 30 years and founded by Sangita Jindal and her daughter Tarini Jindal Handa, Hampi Art Labs is an initiative of the JSW Foundation – the social development arm of the JSW Group, one of India’s leading business houses.

Located near the last capital of the last great Hindu Kingdom of Vijayanagar and UNESCO World Heritage Site Hampi, the centre is founded on an ethos of building an interdisciplinary institution inspired by the ancient temple city where art, architecture, and literature flourished from the 14th to 16th centuries. Uniquely born of place where art, heritage and nature intermingle, Hampi Art Labs sits in a spectacular setting dominated by the river Tungabhadra, craggy hill ranges and intriguingly large boulders that dot the landscape.

Designed by leading Mumbai-based architect and Dean of the Faculty of Architecture of CEPT University in Ahmedabad, Sameep Padora and his studio sP+a, the centre’s flowing design pays tribute to its natural surroundings through its organic forms and use of locally sourced materials such as soil, stone and steel.

Production facilities will include workshops for printmaking, stone and metal sculpture, ceramics, and new media. Here, artists can learn from the region’s richly replete craft culture and distinctive traditions and techniques. JSW Vijayanagar Works is the largest state-of-the-art single location steel manufacturing unit in India and its proximity to Hampi Art Labs also affords artists an unparalleled opportunity to work on a large scale and with specialised equipment.

Hampi Art Labs education programme offers initiatives engaging local community and international visitors with contemporary art in all its forms. Learning activities and workshops will be developed for schools in the area. The centre seeks to create cultural links across the Global South through its residencies, programming and collaborations with like-minded institutions and organisations.

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