New Delhi [India], May 5: Serendipity Arts announces the launch of THE BRIJ Cultural Leaders Fellowship, a capacity-building initiative supported by the French Embassy in India. Conceived as a nine-month leadership development programme for mid-career cultural practitioners and cross-sector professionals across India, the fellowship is built on a single, radical premise: that the most important thing a leader can develop is not a product, but a question.
At a time when leadership development within India's cultural sector remains limited in long-term, context-specific formats, the fellowship offers a sustained and rigorous alternative. It is designed for practitioners navigating the complexities of cultural work in India, while also inviting professionals from adjacent fields whose work intersects with questions of culture and community.
The fellowship brings together a diverse cohort drawn equally from cultural practice and cross-sector leadership. This includes practitioners across visual arts, performing arts, film, literature, design, craft, heritage, and arts education, alongside professionals from fields such as business, public policy, law, technology, urban development, social enterprise, public health, and philanthropy—creating a shared space for exchange across disciplines.
The fellowship is intended for mid-career professionals with a minimum of seven years of experience who demonstrate a sustained engagement with culture, communities, or creative practice. It is designed for individuals with a clear intellectual curiosity and a question they are ready to pursue within their work, as well as a willingness to commit to a rigorous, nine-month process of reflection, dialogue, and exchange. The programme is open to Indian nationals across both cultural and cross-sector practices who are looking to deepen their leadership through inquiry rather than instruction.
Rather than delivering a prescribed curriculum, the programme is structured as a process of inquiry. Over nine months, fellows are supported in shaping their own intellectual trajectory—developing a line of questioning that emerges from their practice, their context, and the challenges they are engaging with. This journey unfolds across three distinct phases.
The first phase, Self & Context, begins with an immersive residential experience focused on self-examination, cohort building, and foundational dialogue. The second phase, Ecosystem & Region, expands this inquiry through expert-led conversations, peer exchange, and exposure to diverse practices. The final phase, Leadership & Futures, is anchored within the wider ecosystem of the Serendipity Arts Festival, where fellows reflect on their learning and articulate a forward-looking framework for their practice. The fellowship culminates in a Research Inquiry Proposal—a considered articulation of the question each fellow chooses to pursue and how it will shape their work going forward.
The experience is designed as a holistic and deeply supported journey. Each fellow is paired with a senior mentor for sustained one-to-one engagement across the nine months, alongside weekly live sessions with industry leaders and curated conversations with practitioners and thinkers from across disciplines. The programme also includes a psychometric assessment with individual coaching, immersive residential components, and structured peer learning through ongoing inquiry circles. Fellows are supported through curated reading materials and, beyond the duration of the programme, become part of a long-term alumni network with continued access to the wider Serendipity Arts ecosystem.
Why THE BRIJ Cultural Leaders Fellowship
THE BRIJ Cultural Leaders Fellowship is delivered by Serendipity Arts, one of India's most significant contemporary arts organisations and the force behind the Serendipity Arts Festival, South Asia's largest multidisciplinary arts festival. For over a decade, Serendipity Arts has convened artists, institutions, and ideas across disciplines, geographies, and forms.
The fellowship has been designed in close conversation with an advisory committee of leaders drawn from Indian cultural life, education, and cross-sector practice, including Seema Bansal, Paul Thompson, and Pramath Sinha. Its curriculum framework draws on a rigorous study of the world's leading cultural leadership fellowships, globally benchmarked and adapted specifically for the Indian context.
“THE BRIJ Cultural Leaders Fellowship emerges from a long-standing recognition that India's cultural sector needs sustained, context-specific leadership development. At Serendipity Arts, we have consistently engaged with practitioners across disciplines and geographies, and what has become clear is the need for spaces that privilege inquiry over instruction. This fellowship is designed to support individuals not in arriving at definitive answers, but in shaping the questions that will inform their practice and leadership over time. We see this as an investment in the intellectual and ethical foundations of the cultural ecosystem in India,” said Smriti Rajgarhia, Director of Serendipity Arts and Course Director of THE BRIJ Cultural Leaders Fellowship.
Anchored in this strong institutional legacy and forward-looking vision, THE BRIJ is supported by the French Embassy in India, notably through a FEF grant allocated by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, aimed at encouraging capacity building in the field of culture. More broadly, France is supporting the development of the creative economy as a strategic priority, mapping key players and platforms worldwide, including Serendipity Arts.
On this occasion, Grégor Trumel, Counsellor for Cooperation and Culture and Director of the French Institute in India, noted, “In a context of significant growth of the cultural and creative industries—across the globe and especially in India—this unique programme responds to important needs in terms of capacity-building and professionalisation. Investing in growing local talent is key for us. With its support to THE BRIJ, France is excited to be part of a platform that empowers a new generation of cultural leaders while fostering dialogue between French and Indian creatives.”
The fellowship places value on the intellectual life of the cultural practitioner, treating leadership not as a set of skills to be acquired, but as a question to be pursued.
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