Thiruvananthapuram-based art community, Live by ONC, aims to boost the city’s art culture

For the founding members of Live by ONC (short for Oru New Culture), a group of friends from Christ Nagar College, Maranalloor, in Thiruvananthapuram, the idea for launching a community in the city that organises art and cultural events originated from a trip they took to Bengaluru a few months ago. The group, unable to decide how to spend their evenings in the metro city, searched online platforms, where they found a plethora of options from cultural events to parties, ultimately choosing the latter.

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Once they returned, the friends decided to start a community in the Kerala capital in October 2025 when they organised their first event and have since then conducted music nights, crochet workshops, and other programmes. The latest is a biomimicry workshop, Wildmarks, touted to be the first in Thiruvananthapuram, to be held on February 22. “The immersive session will require participants to explore their surroundings, pick an object in nature that catches their attention and create an artwork out of impressions made by it,” says Adwaith S, one of the founding members of Live by ONC.

Founding members of Live by ONC
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The collective began with a discussion on how dormant Thiruvananthapuram’s art and event scene was. “With a lot of people coming to the city, our goal is to boost the city’s art and cultural scene by creating a space for artists to showcase their works and give them exposure,” says Adwaith. “A lot of people are also moving to the city. So, we are building something for them to spend quality time, be it alone or with their friends, or even to meet new people.”

Live by ONC focuses on two types of events — hosting intimate gatherings where people can socialise and mainstream events, such as concerts, with a larger crowd. We also plan on curating events for corporate companies and even destination weddings.”

Humble beginnings

Adwaith says, “When we started, I remember a lot of people telling me that people here does not have that culture of spending time outside their households yet. They said, ‘If you’re doing events, there’s no guarantee that it can amount to anything.’ We realised how people are mostly used to having just a quick meal outside on weekends, without being involved in any other activities.”

So far, the response has been great, say the organisers. The people here are very social and have the mind to experiment as well. But there isn’t much offered to them, says Adwaith. “We are also trying to get people to explore their hobbies and present their talents.”

Scenes from a crochet organised by Live by ONC
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Live by ONC’s recent crochet workshop was a hit. “We posted an after-movie on our social media handle, which went viral. Since then, our community has been growing organically and quickly.”

Follow the Instagram handle @livebyonc for more updates on their events.