The formal inauguration of PRAYAS 2016 will be held on June 29, 2016, at the Satyajit Ray Auditorium of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR). Subrata Mukherjee, Minister in Charge, Panchayat and Rural Development and Public Health Engineering Department, Government of West Bengal, will inaugurate the art festival. Artist Rabin Mondal, fashion designer Sharbari Datta and theatre-person Dolly Basu will be present as guests of honour.

Smita Art and Chemould Art Gallery, who have been organising this festival since 2014, also honour well-known artists or art-related personalities across genres every year. This year, Lifetime Achievement Awards will be conferred on artists Lalu Prasad Shaw and Anita Roy Chowdhury; art critic, curator and art historian Pranabranjan Ray; and photographer Nemai Ghosh.

At the inauguration, there will also be a digital unveiling of the works to be displayed at PRAYAS 2016, and the declaration of awards for the participants.