About
To place Indian art, culture and heritage at the heart of national life - bridging contemporary practice, heritage conservation and public cultural infrastructure.
The arts, culture and heritage work of the JSW Foundation is among India's most significant private commitments to the arts. Led by Sangita Jindal, it spans contemporary art (Hampi Art Labs, the Sangita Jindal Collection, Art India magazine), heritage conservation (the Hampi temple complex and Mumbai's David Sassoon Library and Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue), and - newly - public cultural infrastructure through the textile museum at Mumbai's India United Mill.
For three decades, the Jindal family has used the resources of one of India's largest industrial houses to patronise art and protect heritage. It began in 1994 with the Jindal Arts Creative Interaction Centre at the NCPA and Art India magazine in 1996, and grew through a personal collection and steady support for fairs, prizes and conservation.
The work scaled in 2012 with Kaladham, a heritage museum and performance campus at Vijayanagar near the group's steel plant, and again in 2024 with Hampi Art Labs - a nine-acre contemporary arts centre and residency beside the Hampi UNESCO site, founded with daughter Tarini Jindal Handa. In parallel, conservation projects restored landmark Mumbai heritage. The next chapter moves from patronage into public infrastructure: an MoU with the BMC and the National Textile Corporation to build a textile, craft and cultural museum at the historic India United Mill - delivered, notably, on a non-profit basis.
Visit & Access
Hampi Art Labs is open to visitors near the Hampi UNESCO World Heritage Site, Vijayanagara, Karnataka.
Founding & Leadership
Sangita Jindal chairs the JSW Foundation, the social-development arm of the US$24-billion JSW Group, and has placed culture at the heart of its mission for over 25 years. A collector since 1994, she built the ~1,000-work Sangita Jindal Collection and has been among India's most prominent patrons of both contemporary art and heritage conservation. She set up the Jindal Arts Creative Interaction Centre at the NCPA (1994), has published Art India magazine since 1996, founded Hampi Art Labs with her daughter Tarini Jindal Handa (2024), and led restorations from the Hampi temple complex to Mumbai's David Sassoon Library and Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue. She is a trustee of the World Monuments Fund (India), an Eisenhower Fellow, a Tate International Council member and, since 2024, Chairperson of the Asia Society India Centre. In 2025 France named her Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Operates as the arts, culture & heritage vertical of the JSW Foundation, the CSR/social-development arm of the JSW Group.
Leadership & Trustees
Initiatives & Portfolio
A nine-acre contemporary arts centre near the Hampi UNESCO World Heritage Site (Karnataka) - exhibition galleries, production studios, gardens, a café and residency apartments. Founded by Sangita Jindal and Tarini Jindal Handa; designed by Sameep Padora; supports artists from the Global South.
A ~4,000-sqm textile, craft and cultural museum at the historic India United Mill, Byculla, Mumbai - an adaptive-reuse project delivered on a non-profit basis under an MoU with BMC and NTC. Planned galleries, art studios, performance venues, an open-air sculpture garden, cafés and education spaces.
A ten-acre campus in Vijayanagar with a museum dedicated to the heritage of Hampi and performance venues.
Restoration work at the Hampi temple complex, including collaboration with the Global Heritage Fund on temple-site restoration.
Restoration of the iconic Grade-I heritage David Sassoon Library and Reading Room in Mumbai.
Conservation of the historic Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue in Mumbai.
India's premier art magazine, chronicling the Indian art scene; published by Sangita Jindal since 1996.
Cultural wing at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai - free film screenings, workshops, public discussions and art-for-social-change programming.
Three-month residency cycles at Hampi Art Labs with printmaking, sculpture, ceramics and new-media facilities; includes exchanges between Indian and international (e.g. French) creators.
Sustained support for the wider ecosystem: India Art Fair, the AD x JSW Prize for Contemporary Craftsmanship, and the Indian Ceramics Triennale.
Cultural Funding
Cultural verticals
Impact & Metrics
Partnerships & Network
Partner institutions
Government partners
Funders & patrons
Indo-French artist exchange (incl. a 2024 collaboration around the Paris Olympic Games); the AD x JSW Prize for Contemporary Craftsmanship.
Credentials & Compliance
CSR-eligible · Schedule VII(v) - national heritage, art & culture
As the cultural vertical of a corporate foundation embedded in a listed conglomerate, JSW Foundation's arts spending is reported within JSW Group's broader CSR / BRSR disclosures rather than as standalone audited arts-arm accounts. Vertical-specific 80G/12A/FCRA particulars are [Data Not Publicly Available]. This is a structural transparency limitation of corporate-foundation cultural arms, not a governance red flag - but it lowers standalone evaluability versus a dedicated trust.
The arts & heritage vertical is funded through the JSW Foundation, the CSR/social-development arm of JSW Group, under CSR Act Schedule VII(v) (protection of national heritage, art & culture). The India United Mills museum is delivered on a declared non-profit basis.
Recognition
Chairperson Sangita Jindal named Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France, 2025) for her contribution to arts, culture and heritage conservation. Widely regarded as one of India's foremost private patrons of art and heritage.
[Atlas Assessment] The JSW Foundation's arts vertical is among the most consequential private commitments to art and heritage in contemporary India. Its distinction is range: it patronises living contemporary practice (Hampi Art Labs, the Collection, Art India), conserves built heritage across eras and faiths (Vijayanagara temples, a Mumbai synagogue, an Art-Deco library), and is now building public cultural infrastructure (the India United Mills museum). Few Indian patrons operate credibly across all three registers - contemporary, conservation and civic - at this scale.
The strengths are obvious and real: deep and patient capital, a 30-year track record, world-class assets, and a span from contemporary art to heritage conservation that almost no Indian patron matches - now extended into public, non-profit infrastructure with the Mumbai textile museum. The honest caveats are structural. First, the vertical is embedded in a conglomerate's CSR, so its standalone financial transparency is limited and its evaluability lower than a dedicated trust's - a real consideration for a co-funder or partner. Second, it is highly personalised around Sangita Jindal and the family collection; its long-term institutional resilience depends on succession and on assets like Hampi Art Labs and the museum acquiring lives of their own. Third, as the cultural arm of a steel-and-infrastructure group, its independence is a question a discerning observer will weigh, even as the cultural record stands on its own merits.