SWALI CRAFT PRIZE
Edition 2026-2027
Karishma Swali and the Chanakya Foundation in partnership with India Art Fair, are honoured to present The Swali Craft Prize — an homage to the enduring and evolving language of craft. Grounded in technical mastery, conceptual depth, cultural resonance, and sustainable impact, the Prize recognises craftsmanship as a precise skill and a profound mode of expression. It celebrates work that blends narrative with intellectual clarity, honours heritage while engaging the present, and upholds ethical practices that ensure the transmission of knowledge across generations.
Through this lens, the Prize challenges the conventional hierarchies between craft and fine art, advocating for a more expansive view of creative practice. It invites a renewed understanding of craft as a vital, contemporary force within cultural discourse.
SECOND EDITION 2026 - 2027
The second edition of the Prize will confer a prize of INR 11,00,000 to an artist whose work reflects excellence in art and craft. In addition, the recipient will be offered a generous budget for research, development, and production toward a collaborative installation, and a fully supported two-week residency at the Chanakya School of Craft in Mumbai, — a space for reflection, creation, and dialogue; providing time, mentorship, and resources to further develop their practice. The final works will be presented at India Art Fair 2027 in New Delhi, with the potential to travel thereafter to a significant venue internationally.
ELIGIBILITY
The Prize and accompanying residency are open to artists engaging with interdisciplinary approaches to handcraftsmanship. Eligible applicants must currently live and work in India, and demonstrate an established practice through a minimum of one solo exhibition within the country, and participation in at least one solo or group exhibition internationally within the past seven years.
APPLICATION
To apply, participants are invited to submit a digital portfolio by 20th May 2026, via the link
below. Submissions must include the following materials:
- – A complete curriculum vitae
- – A short biographical note
- – A digital portfolio
- – A concept statement on the proposed project and its engagement with Chanakya
School’s pedagogical & material practices - – A preliminary visual proposal
Apply here
INAUGURAL EDITION: SWALI CRAFT
PRIZE 2025-2026
The inaugural edition of the Swali Craft Prize established a distinctive foundation with The Lotus Headed by winning recipient Natasha Preenja (also known as Princess Pea), unveiled at India Art Fair 2026.
The edition convened an international jury comprising Meneesha Kellay (Senior Curator, Contemporary at the Victoria and Albert Museum), Mickalene Thomas (Visual Artist), Jasmine Wahi (Curator and Co-Director, Project for Empty Space), Jaya Asokan (Fair Director, India Art Fair), and Karishma Swali (Creative Director, Chanakya International and Chanakya School of Craft), lending uniquely diverse perspectives to the review of over 100 submissions.
Engaging feminist thought, mythology, and traditional craft to interrogate the body, gender, and the politics of care, Preenja’s multidisciplinary practice spans painting, sculpture, performance, and collaborative processes.
The Lotus Headed
Developed through a close dialogue between Natasha Preenja, Karishma Swali, and the Chanakya School of Craft, the sculpture explores the ancient figure of Lajja Gauri—an embodiment of fertility, reinterpreting her grounded uttanapad (squatting) posture, while invoking its resonance as a gesture of protest, reclamation, and endurance.
The sculpture began with thousands of hand-carved wooden elements from the Etikopakka toy-making tradition of Andhra Pradesh, using native Ankudu wood. These were integrated by master artisans at the Chanakya School, who stitched and knitted them into a richly textured surface comprising six layers of jute and cotton embroidery. This intricate surface is anchored by a concealed steel architectural body, allowing the monumental form to maintain a sense of lightness and porosity.
The project reflects a profound convergence of methodologies: Preenja’s sculptural inquiry into maternal resilience and the Chanakya School’s craft-led approach grounded in collective authorship.
CHANAKYA FOUNDATION x INDIA ART FAIR
Karishma Swali has long been a leading voice in the preservation and revival of India’s intangible cultural heritage. Since 1998, she has helmed Chanakya International - a global textile house founded in 1984 - shaping its legacy as a space where traditional craftsmanship meets contemporary design. Under her creative direction, Chanakya has become synonymous with pioneering collaborations in the global luxury space, placing artisanal excellence at the centre of modern creative practice.
In response to urgent social, ecological, and economic realities, Karishma Swali founded the Chanakya Foundation in 2015 - a platform dedicated to cultural sustainability through education, skill-building, and the safeguarding of India’s living craft traditions. One year later, this vision expanded with the establishment of the Chanakya School of Craft, a non-profit institution committed to empowering women through knowledge, cultural engagement, and creative autonomy. Together, these initiatives form an ecosystem that repositions craft as both inheritance and innovation - a tool for transformation, relevance, and resilience.
In parallel, India Art Fair stands as the leading platform for modern and contemporary art from South Asia. Through a year-round
programme of exhibitions, commissions, and institutional partnerships, the fair cultivates a dynamic space for cultural dialogue and
exchange. Its annual four-day event in New Delhi brings together key voices across disciplines, forging new global pathways and
reimagining the region’s place within the international cultural landscape.
With over fifteen years of history, India Art Fair remains committed to building sustainable futures for the arts, while championing the
creative forces reshaping the cultural narrative of the region.
ARTIST IN RESIDENCY 2024-2025
Genes Mundi
Daniela Papadia and Chanakya School of Craft
Daniela Papadia was selected as the 2025 Artist in Residence at the Chanakya School of Craft. In collaboration with Creative Director Karishma Swali, the School’s women graduates, and master artisans from the Chanakya atelier, Papadia developed six large-scale, interdisciplinary works - each measuring 4 by 7.8 feet. These embroidered panels depict planispheres marked with letters symbolising mitochondrial mutations across continents, mapping an unbroken lineage of matrilineal kinship. Executed with meticulous precision, the works integrate cotton, jute, linen, and Lurex threads on cotton ground, using techniques such as couching, flung stitching, and classic needlepoint. At once archival and experimental, the series embodies a continuum of history and reinvention, revealing the shared language of craft as a profound expression of human connection.
In Genes Mundi, Italian artist Daniela Papadia reimagines the world map beyond geographical borders, delving into deeper layers of meaning - mapping external landscapes and the internal cartographies of human ancestry, belief systems, and shared cultural heritage. The project traces ancestral migrations through mitochondrial DNA, weaving a narrative that connects us to our earliest foremothers, with Mitochondrial Eve - the primordial matriarch from 200,000 years ago - at its heart.
ARTIST IN RESIDENCY 2023-2024
Water Matters
Barthélémy Toguo and Chanakya School of Craft
Barthélémy Toguo was selected as the 2024 Artist in Residence at the Chanakya School of Craft. His residency unfolded as a meditation on water - at once an essential element and a stark emblem of global inequality. Anchored in a formative memory of his childhood in Cameroon, where he would rise at dawn to fetch water for his household, Toguo confronts the persistent reality of water scarcity - a crisis that continues to affect communities across Africa and around the world. Through this project, a deeply personal narrative is transformed into a universal appeal for awareness, using the language of craft to embody urgency, resilience, and the collective right to life.
Presented at India Art Fair 2024, the resulting body of work bridges painting and textile. Raw organic threads and fine hand-embroidery techniques - including stem stitch, back stitch, and micro-French knots - are employed with precision to echo the fluidity and diffusion of ink across paper, translating Toguo’s visual language into a new material form.
