Enquiry

Overview

Theme: अक्षर संस्कृति (Akshara-Sanskriti) — Letters as Pillars of Culture

Exploring how letters and scripts are not just writing tools, but powerful carriers of culture, memories, and traditions.

  • Exhibition Display: 14 Nov – 16 Dec 2025 (one month)
  • Venue: National Museum, New Delhi
  • Last Date for registration: 31 August 2025
  • Last Date of Artwork Submission: will be shared via email
Artwork Submission:
  • Delhi-based artists: Submit artworks directly at the National Museum venue on the given date and time.
  • Artists outside Delhi: Dispatch artworks to The Calligraphy Foundation office address before the deadline.
Artwork Submission:
  • Delhi-based artists: Submit artworks directly at the National Museum venue on the given date and time.
  • Artists outside Delhi: Dispatch artworks to The Calligraphy Foundation office address before the deadline.
Artwork Return:
  • Delhi-based artists: Collect artworks in person from the National Museum as per guidelines.
  • Artists outside Delhi: Artworks will be couriered back after 15 December 2025 (courier charges borne by organizers)
Process:

All step-by-step communication will be shared via the registered email. Artists must stay connected to their email, acknowledge messages, and submit deliverables on time. The process is divided into 3 phases:

  • Phase 1: Registration & Queries
  • Phase 2: Concept Submission & Approval
  • Phase 3: Final Artwork Submission
Register now

Sulekhan Kala Pradarshani 2025

Where Scripts Become Surfaces of Cultural Memory

The Sulekhan Kala Pradarshani is not an art exhibition in the conventional sense—it is a curated act of preservation and provocation. In an age where scripts are vanishing from public life, this exhibition insists that scripts are not only for reading—but for seeing, feeling, and remembering.

It is a space where calligraphy becomes culture, and every stroke becomes a narrative of place, identity, and time. The exhibition brings together artists, typographers, textile designers, and sculptors who work with script not as motif, but as message.

This is where the visual history of India’s scripts is not archived—but activated.

Where letters leave the page and enter clay, fabric, wood, pigment, and digital projection.

And where the act of viewing becomes a public ritual of cultural witness

previous year catalogs

Theme Title

अक्षर संस्कृति (Akshara-Sanskriti)
Letters as Pillars of Culture

This year’s Sulekhan Kala Pradarshani invites us to explore how letters and scripts are not just writing tools — they are powerful carriers of our culture, memories, and traditions. The word “Akshara” means both “letter” and “something that never fades”. “Sanskriti” means “culture or civilization”. Together, Akshara-Sanskriti reminds us that our scripts have shaped how we think, record, remember, and express ourselves over centuries.

In this exhibition, we bring together two worlds:
  • Historical scripts and manuscripts from the National Museum’s collection — to show how people used to write and preserve knowledge.
  • Contemporary calligraphy artworks created by artists like you — to show how today’s creators are reimagining these scripts in new, artistic ways.
General Participation Guidelines
  • Eligibility: Anyone of age 16+ is eligible to participate
  • Participation Fee: Participation in the exhibition is completely free of cost.
  • This is a curated exhibition. All submitted work must go through a selection process.
  • Final selection will be made by curators from both The Calligraphy Foundation and the National
  • Museum.
What we are looking for in the artworks?
  • Authenticity: Rooted in script heritage, not random stylization
  • Creativity: Reinterpret, don’t just replicate
  • Dialogue: Think of your piece as a thread connecting the old and the new
  • Accessibility: Should connect with viewers even if they don’t know the script

Artwork specification

  • Core Focus: Every artwork must place calligraphy, scripts, or letterforms at the center, not as decoration.
  • Script requirement: At least 60% of the artwork should be calligraphy/letterforms. Works with token or superficial use of script will not be accepted
  • The artwork is to be made on canvas ONLY
  • Final artwork size must be in imperial portrait format (2 ft x 3 ft)
  • Artwork must be mounted on high-quality mount board
  • Artists may use vintage or classical design elements like borders, motifs, or symbolic imagery
Note:
  • Digital artworks/printouts NOT allowed
  • Old artworks aligning with the theme are welcome
  • Collaborative artworks are welcome
Download guidelines
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