Kaaya is about re-imagining. So is this.
Some ideas need more than a desk and a screen. They need a room, a community, a field, a kiln, a kitchen — or simply time and honest ground conditions. At Kaaya, we offer the space for seedling concepts to take root in reality before they face the scale of the marketplace.
Through our Plug ‘n’ Play model, we invite innovators to inhabit the campus. Kaaya may provide the physical space, engage in co-creation, or act as an active field partner — testing and refining ideas in a living environment, alongside a community that has its own knowledge and its own pace.
Kaaya does not incubate ideas for you. It incubates them with you — and sometimes, in spite of you, the place itself becomes part of what you are making.
Ideas currently being incubated at Kaaya
Padav Fellowship — incubated by Jagmohan Bangani
Jagmohan Bangani, a visionary artist from Uttarakhand, partnered with Kaaya to establish a mentorship hub for emerging young artists from the remote mountain region.
While Jagmohan provided the creative mentorship, artists network, and craft support, Kaaya served as the essential anchor — the ‘padav’ — offering its campus, logistical framework, and relaxed natural ambience to transform his dream into a living reality for promoting arts and artists in the region.
In the process, the Bangani Art Foundation has been established to continue supporting arts and artists in the Himalayan region. The BAF Learning Centre is in the making.
The Himalayan region has long produced artists who work largely in isolation, separated by distance and the relative scarcity of platforms that speak to their specific context. Padav is quietly building something to address that.
Anutraaya — incubated by Asambhava
Asambhava is an entrepreneur concerned with what happens to knowledge when the conditions that produced it disappear. Anutraaya is the name for this inquiry — where the traditional is not preserved in a museum but practised in a living environment. Using Kaaya and the neighbouring village of Tilwari as the ground for this experiment, the initiative seeks to translate ancestral wisdom into resilient pathways for the future.
Step into Anutraaya’s journey of rethinking food, language, and craft so everyday life in the hills can stay rooted and resilient.
Bring your idea
We are looking for serious, thoughtful concepts that seek more than just a backdrop. Whether it is physical space, long-term collaboration, or field testing in a living environment — begin with an honest conversation about what you hope to build.
“The best ideas arrive here already half-formed — shaped enough to be legible, open enough to be changed by the place.”
From the field
Padav Fellowships — A stopover in one’s journey: how mentors and emerging artists find each other at Kaaya.
Holding Space for Stillness and Spark — A reflection on hosting the Padav Art Mentoring Program 2025.
Empowering Neighbourhoods — Kaaya’s fellowship for rural women entrepreneurs, and the hub-and-spoke model behind it.