About
We stopped waiting for the structure to appear.
The Foundation
Kalyani Kalakriti Foundation was formed in August 2024 with one intention: to make it possible for a young artist in India to earn from their work while they are still learning to make it.
That turned out to be harder than expected. We went looking for the grant schemes a student artist could apply to and could not find them — not at any scale, and almost never for an individual. We went looking for the door a company walks through to support one, and it was not there either. Talent has never been the constraint. The constraint has always been the absence of any structure between finishing a piece of work and anybody seeing it.
So we stopped waiting for the structure to appear and started building a small part of it.
The magazine
The Raconteur is that part. A weekly magazine, with a themed edition every month, of long-form stories about student artists, and a catalogue where their work can be bought while they are still studying. It is by students, of students, for students — and for everyone who loves art.
We chose a magazine deliberately, over a portal, a directory or an app. A story is the only format that makes a stranger care about a person they have never met. A grid of thumbnails has never once done that.
Why 'The Raconteur'
A raconteur is someone who tells a story well. Not louder. Better.
We are not the raconteur. The artists are. We are only the room they get to tell it in.
The founders
Two halves of the same organisation.
Jyoti — Founder & Editor
Two decades inside the administration of some of India's best-known corporations taught Jyoti how large organisations actually work: how a decision gets made, how a budget gets approved, and how a promise gets either kept or quietly dropped. A further decade of building events and exhibitions taught her the other half of it — how a room is made to feel like something, and how much invisible labour sits behind one evening that goes well.
Kalyani Kalakriti Foundation came out of both halves. It is run with the discipline of the first and the intention of the second.
Asheesh — Founder
Twenty-five years in brand and marketing — Coca-Cola, SABMiller, Henkel, the Aditya Birla Group — is a long education in one skill: making a great many people pay attention to something. It is a useful skill and it is usually spent on soft drinks.
The Raconteur is that skill pointed somewhere it is needed. He set the Foundation up, sets its direction, and signs off on what it publishes.
Who you will deal with
The people behind The Raconteur.
JyotiFounder & EditorRuns the magazine week to week and writes the Editor’s Desk.
AsheeshFounderSets the Foundation’s direction and signs off on what it publishes.
MonikaCuratorial LeadA postgraduate and practising artist. She shortlists from the open call, works with the selection panel, approves every work in the catalogue, and writes the Curatorial Lead’s Desk.
SakshamTechnologyBuilds and runs the website, the submission forms and the systems behind the magazine.
PrakharGrievance OfficerHears complaints and requests for correction about anything we publish, and makes sure each one gets an answer.
The Foundation
The Foundation’s governing body.
PratimaArts teacher
PrasoonRetired Class 1 Government officer
PrateekESG consultantTo reach any of us, the team or the governing body: +91 98 8804 8804 · kkfo@kalyanikalakriti.in
The team
Outreach and artist relations · Technology and platform · Finance and compliance · Editorial interns, drawn from art and design colleges across India.
Our outreach is run by people who have trained as artists, not by a call centre. When someone from The Raconteur contacts a student about their work, they have made work themselves.
Governance
Artist Panel — practising artists who review submitted work anonymously, without the artist's name, college or city attached. Edition One's panel: Tanmay Santra, Saroj Kumar Badatya, Pranjal Saini and Satadru Sovan Banduri.