Sana Rezwan began collecting art while running an art marketing agency in New York. She may not have realized it then, but by then she had done many things in her life – founding Indelust, a platform to source ethical fashion from India and Pakistan; sat on the advisory arts council of Harvard University’s South Asia Institute and as a curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Along with his experience as a senior director in the family business, they were all training for his most ambitious venture to date.
Sana Rezwan
In 2022, he founded the Public Arts Trust of India (PATI), a non-profit that focuses on cultural projects across the country. PATI’s flagship initiatives, Jaipur Art Week and Jodhpur Art Week, are now annual events. With her team, Rezwan creates a thoughtful mix of site-specific installations, exhibitions and performances that bring fascination to everyday public spaces. Government schools, neglected public parks and traditional architectural structures like stepwells become art spaces.
who is it for? Everyone. The recently concluded Jodhpur Art Week attracted over 100,000 visitors across 10 public spaces. With international senior artists like Cheela Kumari Singh in dialogue with traditional architecture and young talents like Sarahu Kilaru and Aku Zeliang considering the possibilities of craft and expression, this edition – inspired by ‘Hath Ro Hunar’ (meaning ‘skill of the hand’ in Marwari) – exemplifies Rezwan’s powerful vision to democratize art.
Theo Pinto’s East Gate represents an ephemeral sunset
Edited excerpts from an interview:
Tell us about PATI. It is interesting that it includes the word ‘public’ – a clear indicator of its approach.
Essentially, PATI is an experiment in decentralization. Our goal is to shift the center of cultural attention away from traditional centers of power and visibility, and instead create platforms where regional narratives, artisanal practices and contemporary interventions intersect. Our approach is one of inclusivity and putting ‘the public’ at its heart – not just in terms of access to audiences, but whose voices, histories and methods of creation are brought into dialogue with each other.
Importantly, this approach is not limited to episodic festivals. During the year, PATI runs a creative arts education program in five government schools in Jodhpur, supported by a fellowship model that places young teachers in classrooms. In parallel, our Ambassador Program provides internships for high-school students who are eager to expand their knowledge of art and its broader social impacts. These year-round initiatives are at the heart of our ethos: they ensure that public art is not presented as a mere spectacle, but integrated into the everyday life of the city.
Living Museum, a collection of objects – from ancient markets and personal collections – representing the cultural history of Jodhpur
Dhakan Collective’s nomadic echoes celebrates nomadic communities
Why did the idea of ​​creating an art week in Jodhpur come up?
I wanted ongoing engagement, so the idea of ​​an arts week was less about creating a festival and more about creating a framework for it. Jodhpur, with its layered architectural fabric and living craft traditions, offers a particularly fertile soil. This project is not merely an event but a proposition: how can contemporary artistic practice resonate within a city where heritage is not static but constantly negotiated?
Aku Zeliang’s installation of Huh Tu ships displayed near Turji Ka Jhalra honors Rajasthan and Nagaland
Xavier Wong Zhen Rui reimagines the screen
Why Jodhpur?
It symbolizes the continuity of cultural production – from the artisanal to the monumental. It is a city where stone carving, painting and metal work co-exist with the forts and palaces that dominate its skyline. For me, Jodhpur represents both flexibility and imagination. Importantly, it also exemplifies the potential of decentralization: an insistence that world-class cultural programming can – and should – take place outside of metropolitan capitals.
afra shemza’s shemza.digital #17 makes a modern forged with uv light
With artists like Ayesha Singh and Chilla Kumari Burman being part of the programme, how is Jodhpur Art Week creating space for women’s voices and stories within the broader art narrative?
Foregrounding women artists is not a curatorial idea but a structural necessity. Artists like Ayesha Singh and Cheela Kumari Burman question power, patriarchy and identity through different aesthetic strategies – Singh through architectural interventions that expose hidden hierarchies, Burman through a neon-saturated iconography that reclaims visibility. By placing such practices at the center of the art week, we aim to destabilize inherited narratives and open space for feminist imaginations to shape the discourse of contemporary art in India.
Neon-saturated statue of Cheela Kumari Burman
Saruha Kilaru’s installation of hand-burned desert plants in glass ornaments also pays homage to Gulab Rai
What steps are being taken to make Jodhpur Art Week accessible and attractive to visitors?
Accessibility works on multiple registers. Spatially, our decision to embed the projects within stepwells, gardens and public courtyards ensures that the city itself becomes the exhibition space. Our outreach with schools and artisans puts learning and participation at the heart of the festival. Education and ambassador programs also build bridges of familiarity, ensuring that the festival is experienced not as a temporary imposition but as part of an ongoing civic dialogue. At the international level, collaboration with institutions such as the Institut Français and the British Council expands our dialogue beyond national borders. So again, accessibility is not just about removing barriers to entry, but also about building an ethos of shared ownership.
The interviewee is the Founder-Director of Eeka Archiving Services.
published – October 18, 2025 08:29 am IST