Some people preserve a city by building museums. Madhavi Kuckreja chose to keep Lucknow alive through its people, crafts and stories.
The name behind Sanatkada Lucknow, Kuckreja has spent more than three decades working across social development, women’s empowerment and cultural preservation. What began as Sanatkada, a space celebrating weaves and crafts, eventually grew into the Mahindra Sanatkada Lucknow Festival, now one of Lucknow’s most recognisable cultural events
What makes Madhavi Kuckreja’s work stand out is that her vision has always gone beyond putting Lucknow’s crafts on display. She has been interested in the people, communities and stories behind them. Sanatkada was built as a bridge between rural artisans and newer audiences, with a focus on keeping traditional crafts relevant while creating better opportunities for the people who make them.
Today, that work continues through Lucknow Bioscope, Kuckreja’s city museum project in Qaiserbagh. The initiative documents the lesser-seen side of Lucknow—from its architecture and cuisine to everyday lives, memories and traditions.
Her idea of culture is equally broad. For Kuckreja, Lucknow’s heritage is not confined to monuments or Nawabi history. It lives in its food, language, music, neighbourhoods, artisans, performers and everyday traditions. That thinking shaped the Mahindra Sanatkada Lucknow Festival, whose themes over the years have explored everything from Awadhi food and bazaars to crafts, architecture and the city’s communities.
That same vision has now found another expression in Lucknow Bioscope. The city museum aims to document and preserve both the familiar and lesser-known stories of Lucknow, creating a permanent space for what its founders describe as the spirit of Lucknowiyat.
And perhaps that is the thread running through Kuckreja’s work: not simply preserving the Lucknow of the past, but making sure its culture continues to have a place in the Lucknow of tomorrow
And that may be why Sanatkada feels less like an institution and more like a very Lucknow kind of conversation—warm, inclusive and deeply rooted in tehzeeb.