About
To foster human values and create stress-free and violence-free society through the teachings of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
Spiritual humanitarian organisation that organises the World Culture Festival, a mass-scale performing arts and culture event at major Foundation milestones. Not a grant-making arts funder. Cultural output is self-produced rather than sector-supporting.
The Art of Living Foundation was founded in 1981 in Bengaluru by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a spiritual teacher who developed breathing and meditation practices now taught globally. The Foundation operates humanitarian programmes in health, education, prison rehabilitation and disaster relief, and runs the Vyakti Vikas Kendra India as its charitable arm.
Its cultural dimension is primarily the World Culture Festival, a mass-gathering event held periodically to mark significant anniversaries. The 2006 inaugural edition in Bengaluru drew 2.5 million attendees; the 2016 Delhi edition drew an estimated 3.5 million and featured 35,000 artists from 155 countries performing simultaneously. The 2023 edition was held at the National Mall in Washington DC. These events are spectacular demonstrations of the Foundation's organisational capacity and of the performing arts traditions of its global practitioner community.
The World Culture Festival is not, however, a platform for independent cultural organisations or folk/classical performing arts communities in the way that the Jaipur Literature Festival or the Serendipity Arts Festival operates. It is a produced event that serves the Foundation's spiritual and humanitarian mission. This is a meaningful distinction for cultural organisations seeking institutional support.
Founding & Leadership
Founder-led
Leadership & Trustees
Initiatives & Portfolio
Mass-scale cultural event held at major Foundation milestones. 2006 edition: 2.5 million attendees, Bengaluru. 2016 edition: 3.5 million attendees, 35,000 artists, New Delhi flood plain. 2023 edition: Washington DC, National Mall.
Health, education, disaster relief and prison rehabilitation programmes across 180+ countries. Not arts-specific.
Cultural Funding
Impact & Metrics
Credentials & Compliance
Recognition
A large global wellness/humanitarian movement; a deliberate second gate-negative on a stronger surface trap.
The Art of Living Foundation's World Culture Festival is remarkable for its scale: the 2016 Delhi event was arguably the largest single cultural gathering in human history by attendance. However, its cultural model, producing its own events for its own global community, is distinct from the institutional cultural funding model documented elsewhere in this Atlas. The Foundation does not appear to fund independent cultural organisations, classical or folk performing arts institutions, or arts festivals outside its own programming.
[Atlas Perspective] The Art of Living Foundation occupies an unusual position in India's cultural landscape. Its World Culture Festival events have reached more people than virtually any other cultural organisation in history, and its global practitioner community includes traditional folk and classical artists whose participation in these events provides genuine performance opportunities.
However, from the perspective of India's independent cultural sector, the Foundation functions as a self-contained cultural ecosystem rather than as an institutional funder. Cultural organisations seeking support from Art of Living should understand that the Foundation's philanthropic model is built around its own programming rather than grant-making to the broader sector.
The Foundation's enormous resource base, its global network and its stated commitment to cultural preservation make it a potential partner for cultural documentation and community arts projects in India, though no such partnerships with the independent cultural sector are evidenced in public records.