This project investigates how art, craft, and community engagement can empower marginalized urban communities in Govandi, Mumbai. Collaborating with the Community Design Agency (CDA) through the Under One Sky initiative and Govandi Arts Festival, it examines how grassroots creative interventions challenge elite gatekeeping while enabling residents to share their stories and reshape local narratives.

Central to the research is crochet, used as a lens to explore craftivism, how traditional women’s crafts foster community, knowledge exchange, and economic empowerment. The work included designing the festival’s visual identity, social media outreach, and hands-on workshops, demonstrating how participatory art can democratize creativity. The project highlights how art and design can function as tools for social change, questioning conventional assumptions about whose voices are valued in cultural spaces.