Srinagar, Oct 3: At the University of Kashmir, the first thing that catches the eye is not the imposing Allama Iqbal Library or the stream of students crossing the campus. It is a wall.

An enormous 11,500-square-foot mural stretches across the library façade, bursting with colours, symbols and stories. Students stop to photograph it, while others pause to explore its details. Inspired by the university motto, “Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya—From Darkness to Light”, the mural by Srinagar-based artist Zoya Kashmiri brings together ideas of knowledge, imagination and cultural memory.
The mural reflects a broader change taking shape across Srinagar: art is moving beyond galleries and craft workshops and into the city’s everyday spaces.
Walls, public buildings, underpasses and even shikaras are becoming canvases for Kashmir’s crafts, architecture, folklore, traditions and landscapes.
Kashmir has a rich artistic legacy. Papier-mâché, walnut wood carving, pashmina weaving and embroidery have long been part of its cultural identity and economy. What is new is the setting in which this visual heritage is being reimagined.
The Aks-E-Kashmir initiative, launched in August by Asian Paints, is one such effort. It seeks to take familiar Kashmiri motifs beyond conventional craft spaces and bring them into places encountered in everyday life.
Nowhere is the idea more striking than on Dal Lake.
Among the traditional fleet of carved wooden shikaras, brightly painted boats glide across the water carrying floral patterns, geometric designs and illustrations inspired by Kashmir’s cultural heritage. From a distance, they resemble moving paintings; up close, their designs reveal references to the Valley’s architecture, crafts and folklore.
Under the initiative, 40 shikaras have been transformed into floating works of contemporary art, creating what has been described as India’s first floating public art gallery.
The choice of the shikara carries particular meaning. These are not exhibition props but working boats, sources of livelihood and, for many families, an inheritance passed through generations. They are also among Kashmir’s most recognisable cultural symbols.
Artists Owais Ahmed, Sheehij Kaul, Zahra Javed and Shweta Sharma have retained that identity while giving it a contemporary visual expression.
“Our designs draw on Kashmir’s architecture, papier-mâché, walnut carving, embroidery, saffron fields and folklore. The boats continue to carry passengers across the lake. Only now, their surfaces tell another story,” says Ahmed.
For Gulfam Ahmed, 56, a shikara owner whose boat was painted as part of the initiative, the artwork has also brought a practical benefit.
“People stop us more often now. Earlier, visitors admired the lake. Now they also ask about the artwork, the artist and what the designs represent. That has brought in more business while giving us another way to share Kashmir’s culture,” he says.
The appeal of the project lies partly in its mobility. The art does not wait for visitors to find it—it travels with them.
Across the world, cities such as Bogotá and Melbourne have used murals and public installations to transform ordinary spaces and create new visual identities. Srinagar’s emerging public-art movement draws instead from the cultural vocabulary of the place itself.
Papier-mâché patterns, walnut carving, Kashmiri architecture, embroidery, folklore, Sufi traditions and natural landscapes are being reinterpreted in contemporary forms.
The trend extends beyond the university and Dal Lake. Walls, underpasses and public spaces developed under the Srinagar Smart City programme have featured murals celebrating Kashmiri crafts, Sufi traditions and natural heritage. Kashmir Haat has hosted temporary art and craft displays, while heritage-inspired design elements have appeared around parts of Badamwari and the Jhelum riverfront.
There is no single art district defining this transformation. Instead, artworks appear in scattered corners of the city, often in places people might otherwise pass unnoticed.
That gradual change is perhaps the most striking part of it.
Art is becoming part of Srinagar’s everyday visual language.
As evening settles over the city, the university mural catches the fading sunlight. On Dal Lake, painted shikaras continue their familiar journeys across the water.
Srinagar has not become one giant art gallery. But its walls, boats and public spaces are increasingly telling a story of their own—a story in which Kashmir’s traditional visual heritage meets the language of contemporary art.