When tuk-tuks become mobile canvases

• Community collaboration at the Matara Festival of Arts from December 12-15

In Sri Lanka, the tuk-tuk is an everyday necessity: colourful, noisy, quick, sometimes too quick, and indispensable. They are the vehicles people rely on for school runs, office commutes, general errands and tourist transport. They are also a source of pride for many drivers, who customize their tuks with the same care others invest in maintaining a personal car — new paint jobs, plastered with amusing stickered wisdom, bright and bombastic interiors, sizable speakers, and other upgrades that make their vehicle stand out.

This December 12-15, at the 2025 Matara Festival for the Arts (MFA), four of these familiar machines will take on an unexpected role. They will be transformed into mobile artworks, created in collaboration between Sri Lankan contemporary artists, youth from Matara, local tuk drivers, and a regional partner from India.

Sithum and Family with their Tuk
 

The project, supported by Festival Patron and Art Patron John Keells Foundation in collaboration with the India-Sri Lanka Foundation, is one of the festival’s central exhibits this year, and part of a broader attempt to explore how art can support new forms of community empowerment and economic opportunity.

A Sri Lankan artist-led project

The tuk-tuk mobile art initiative is led by some of the country’s most respected names in contemporary art: Prof. Jagath Weerasinghe (MFA’s curator), Bandu Manamperi and Anura Krishantha, along with Bengaluru-based artist Dushyantha HP. They will work side by side with the MFA’s talented youth cohort — Dinithi Bogahawattha, Kethmin Dilshan, Thenuka Vithanage -  also joined thus far by Matara youth  -  13-year-old Kavishka Siribaddana, and 10-year-olds Pansilu and Kithupa Nanayakkkara, and Bisadi Galhena.

Together, they will convert the exteriors of four tuk tuks into public artworks. The concept is intentionally simple: take something that already moves through the daily lives of thousands of people in Matara and use it as a platform for contemporary artistic expression and community storytelling.

Prof. Weerasinghe describes it as a way of “bringing art back into the public sphere,” an approach that reflects MFA’s overall aim to decentralizing and make art and its opportunities more widely accessible.

Drivers as partners

Tuk owner-drivers Sithum, Tharindu, Priyantha and Kaveesha are not being treated as passive vehicle owners in this project. They are co-creators and active partners. This idea grew from observations of how drivers already present themselves: proud of their tuks, invested in maintaining a distinctive identity, and eager to offer stories about their city — sometimes factually accurate, sometimes more colourful than true, but always with personality.

The festival aims to build on that instinct by first building a creative rapport with the drivers, and in the longer-term looking potentially to (should onward public-private interest and support materialize) scale the project and add in workshops designed to strengthen drivers’ knowledge of Matara’s history, cultural sites, and community stories. The ultimate vision is to equip them to act as local narrators and micro-tourism guides, using the artwork on their vehicles as starting points for conversation.

The project also acknowledges the complexity of the tuk-tuk sector. While these vehicles are vital to daily life, public perceptions are mixed. Passengers often praise the convenience but complain about reckless driving, fare disputes, and inconsistent standards. At the same time, drivers face their own challenges: coming out of a slew of national crises, drivers still feel insecure about  fuel costs, maintenance burdens, growing competition,  and fluctuating regulatory environment.

There are differing attempts to formalize, improve conditions, and create a pathway to climb the ownership ladder — through unions, ride-hailing platforms, and rental companies who lease tuks from local owners  through monthly fee structures so they may be rented by licensed tourists. The MFA project offers an additional angle: a creative, pride-based approach that values drivers’ identities, skills, and role in the region’s tourism ecosystem.

Strategic partnerships

The Matara Festival for the Arts has, since its launch in 2024, been powered by a coalition of partners committed to strengthening cultural life in the south. At the forefront is John Keells Foundation (JKF) — the Corporate Social Responsibility entity of the John Keells Group — which returns as Festival Patron and Art Patron for the second consecutive year.

JKF’s focus on combatting social barriers and advancing creative industries aligns closely with MFA’s mission. Their support has been critical in ensuring that the festival is not just an annual showcase but a platform for training and exposure, community engagement, and long-term cultural capacity-building.

Alongside JKF, the project also reconnects a longstanding Sri Lanka–India artistic relationship. Supported by the India–Sri Lanka Foundation (ISLF), a cultural initiative established by both governments, MFA will host Indian artist Dushyantha HP from Bengaluru’s 1Shanthiroad Studio.

Keeping in moving

Once launched at MFA 2025, the festival hopes that the community interest, and hopefully public and private sector support will consider the lessons of tuk-tuk art as an element in the forward conversation of employment, dignity and creative enterprise in the transport sector.

After all, the project demonstrates a new kind of community-centred arts practice: collaborative, locally grounded, and tied to practical economic opportunities. It suggests a model where stakeholders — from artists to drivers, sponsors to youth groups — work together to shape a more creative and resilient  economy.

In Matara, the tuk-tuk has long been a part of daily life. Now, it may also become a symbol of how art can help reimagine that life in new and constructive ways.