Mumbai, India, 2016
Kala Ghoda Arts Festival
ArtWorks for Freedom traveled to Mumbai, India to take our message of social engagement through the arts to the internationally renowned Kala Ghoda Arts Festival from February 6 through February 14. The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival is the largest multicultural event in India, drawing more than 150,000 visitors each year from around the world to take in the unique culture and beauty of South Mumbai. ArtWorks sponsored multiple performances and exhibits, including:
- “Bought & Sold: Voices of Human Trafficking,” a photo exhibit by ArtWorks for Freedom Founder and Creative Director Kay Chernush that speaks to the experiences and suffering of the hundreds of thousands of women, children and men caught up in the web of modern day slavery.
- “Red Sand Project,” a participatory art installation created by Molly Gochman that invites people to fill sidewalk cracks with red sand to make visible the marginalized and vulnerable members of society;
- “Lal Batti Express” (Red-Light Express), a dramatic performance by the members of Kranti (which means “Revolution: in Hindi) to be held at the National Gallery of Modern Art. Kranti is a non-profit organization that empowers girls from Mumbai’s red light district to become agents of social change.
- “Not My Life,” a film by Academy Award nominee Robert Bilheimer, which documents the world of modern-day slavery on five continents; and
- “Lakshmi,” a feature film directed by Nagesh Kukunoor, about a13-year old girl who is kidnapped, prostituted and against all odds brings her trafficker to justice in an Indian court.
