Banaras Cultural Foundation was set up in 2015 with the intent to bring to centre stage the role of culture and arts in the life of people. Banaras is a city know for its culture and refinement and the central role it played historically in enriching the life in the city. With time we are only extracting from the past glories and there needs to be a resurgence in creating a vibrant cultural platform which will honour the past, move with the present and look towards the future. This will help secure a good quality of life for the people of the city and also build upon centuries of cultural heritage. The foundation would like to engage with the city in the context of the wider scenario in the country and the world on various aspects. Human is in the centre of it all so the physical, mental, emotional, cultural and intellectual needs and citizens have to addressed in totality and not in fragments. Education, Health and Environment play key roles in making this happen.

 

Art and culture are our entry into exploring and making our interventions into the aspects we would like to address. Exhibitions, publications, talks, workshops, educational tours, and care centre are some of the ways we reach out to our audiences.We work in collaboration with other foundations and organisations to come together and build synergy in the city of Varanasi / Banaras. We are a not for profit foundation and have 80G recognition for tax. We are also accredited for CSR funding.

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Our founders have worked for Banaras for over 20 years in areas as diverse as heritage, contemporary art, tree plantation, ecological healing, cuisine, and that indefinable magic called the Banaras way of life.

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We draw our inspiration from one of Banaras’s preeminent citizens and lovers: the artist, scientist, planner, architect, metallurgist, linguist... the multi-faceted genius – James Prinsep. Prinsep spent 10 creative years in Banaras, next to the river he called "our Ganga'', during which the city and the man enriched each other. The year 2020 marks the 200th year of Prinsep’s arrival in Banaras and we would like to dedicate all our newly initiated projects to the memory of James Prinsep and the historic decade that he spent here.