Foundation

Art materials, paint tubes and wooden palette on a work table
Hands holding paintbrushes and mixing natural pigments on fabric
Outdoor art session at Nishantam with painting easel on the grass

WHO WE ARE

We host days.

A room, materials, music, food, and a few hours where nobody is being corrected. The people who come are young adults and children who spend most of their lives being trained, assessed and managed. Here they are not. They make something, it is theirs, and we treat it as work rather than therapy.

We are based in Gurugram. We have been doing this since 2023 — in studios, in schools, in a village in the Garhwal Himalayas, and once at our own property beside the river in Rishikesh.

We are small on purpose. One day done properly is worth more than a programme nobody can sustain.

WHAT WE ARE FOR

Not to fix anyone. Not to speak for anyone.

To make the kind of day that families tell us is hard to find — unhurried, unembarrassed, and open to the parents and educators as much as the young people themselves. And to make sure the work that comes out of it is seen the way any other work would be: on a wall, in a folio, without explanation or apology.

Everyone who makes something here stays anonymous. The work is credited collectively. Recognition happens in the room, with the family, not in public.

THE RESIDENCY

In February 2023 we hosted eight young adults and five educators from Gurugram for two nights at Nishantam, Rishikesh. Mountains, a river, materials, no schedule anyone had to keep up with.

It is the most useful thing we have done, and the thing we would most like to do again — including with groups from outside India. If you run something similar elsewhere, we would like to hear from you.

The Residency at Nishantam, Rishikesh
Nishantam, Rishikesh · 25–26 February 2023

THE RECORD

, 2023–2024

We paused after April 2024. We had run out of a clear way forward, and preferred to stop rather than repeat ourselves.

GET IN TOUCH

We are interested in hearing from organisations doing similar work, in India and elsewhere — and from educators, artists and families who want to be part of a day.

hello@nichealt.com · Gurugram, India