While conversations about mental health and wellbeing are increasing across Bengaluru, they often remain limited to clinics, institutions, and formal environments. BAHF shifts this paradigm by bringing arts-based, trauma-informed, and culturally grounded wellbeing experiences into the everyday spaces where people live, work, wait, and navigate stress.
From police stations and hospitals to petrol pumps, ration shops, post offices, markets, schools, and community centres, the festival transforms Bengaluru into a living creative health lab. By meeting people in the rhythms of their daily lives, BAHF makes wellbeing visible, accessible, and deeply human.
Exploring interdisciplinary engagement across creative arts, music, dance/movement, theatre, storytelling, visual arts, and more, the festival creates non-clinical pathways for expression, grounding, connection, and healing.
Through collaborations with cross-sector institutions, mental health practitioners, artists, public health professionals, educators, cultural workers, community groups and more, BAHF expands access to creative wellbeing and cultivates moments of joy, reflection, belonging, and restoration across the city. The festival is rooted in the belief that wellbeing should not be a privilege, but something people can encounter where they already are.
Bengaluru has long been a city of cultural innovation and civic imagination. It is uniquely placed to lead India's conversation on arts, health, and wellbeing - and to set an example for other cities to follow
Global South Arts and Health Initiative (GSAH)
An international arts and health initiative established in 2023 by the Global Arts in Medicine Fellowship, focused on advancing education, scientific research, and interdisciplinary practice in arts and health. Through collaborations with local organisations, government agencies, arts and culture partners, and academic institutions, GSAH's global initiatives have reached over 500,000 people worldwide — fostering new collaborations, policy conversations, and awareness of the health benefits of the arts.
GSAH brings together professionals, institutions, scholars, and practitioners for strategic partnerships and cultural exchange across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.
Global Arts in Medicine Fellowship (GAIMF)
Founded in 2017 with the support of the United States Mission in Nigeria and the U.S. Department of State, GAIMF's vision is to build a global network of Arts in Medicine and Arts in Health practitioners, focused on SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing.
GAIMF has admitted 1,000+ professionals and students from 60+ countries and is one of the world's largest arts and health networks, with 10,000+ community members — offering theoretical and practical learning, mentoring, and interdisciplinary collaboration, and hosting International Arts and Health Festivals worldwide.
To reimagine a Bengaluru where the power of inter-disciplinary arts nurtures health and wellbeing, building a culture of care that belongs to everyone and lives in the rhythms of everyday life.
Our mission is to expand the concept of health beyond its clinical definition, embracing physical, emotional, social, cultural, and community wellbeing as a connected continuum. We aim to broaden the understanding of the arts beyond music, theatre, and visual art to include storytelling, craft, cooking, gardening, and the everyday creative acts that enrich our lives. By raising awareness of the arts as a powerful, evidence-based contributor to health, we seek to highlight their role in prevention, recovery, resilience, and everyday vitality. We strive to reach diverse audiences where they are—in markets, schools, hospitals, parks, workplaces, and neighbourhoods—making arts-based wellbeing accessible beyond traditional galleries and wellness spaces. Through this, we hope to reframe creative engagement as an everyday practice of caring for ourselves, each other, and our communities, encouraging the arts to become an integral part of daily living, work, social connections, and cultural life, serving as a catalyst for hope, harmony, and lasting wellbeing.
- Integrate health and wellbeing conversations into everyday living spaces, making arts-based wellbeing interventions accessible, visible, familiar, and normalised.
- Regulate the functions of the body-mind-spirit, with mindful present-moment awareness, through art mediums and heart-based practices.
- Encourage a culture of care, empathy, and opportunities for collective healing within the city.
- Connect diverse communities, professions, and lived experiences to celebrate the collective vibe of Bengaluru's culture, people, spaces, and expressions.
- Embrace a value-driven philosophy of care, compassion, commitment, authenticity, and integrity towards a humanistic approach to healing.
At BAHF, we are committed to embodying the core values and principles of GSAH, along with compassionate care, empathy, respect, authenticity, and integrity — with the intent of embracing a wellbeing culture driven by a diverse community of collaboration, trust, safety, and creativity.
Care & Community
Wellbeing, belonging, and holistic health for all.
Experience & Expression
Engagement, diversity, and inclusion through creative arts.
Sustainable Practice
Celebration, hope, and harmony that outlasts the festival weekend.
Reimagined, Resilient City
A creative, healthy Bengaluru — building from festival into lasting culture.