Siddhartha V. Shah, Curator of South Asian art at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), Massachusetts, on what established PEM as the first museum outside of India to focus on the achievements of its modern artists. He will be in conversation with Gayatri Rangachari Shah, a prominent art writer and journalist.

Siddhartha V. Shah is currently the Curator of South Asian Art at the Peabody Essex Museum. Prior to this, he worked as an art dealer and independent curator, spending over 15 years as a specialist in Hindu and Buddhist art of the Kathmandu Valley. He studied the history of art and classics, holds a masters degree in East-West Psychology, and earned his PhD at Columbia University under the mentorship of Vidya Dehejia. Shah’s academic and curatorial projects have been featured in publications ranging from India Today and The Times of India to Psychology Today and The New Yorker. 

Gayatri Rangachari Shah is a journalist and columnist whose work has appeared in both national and international publications, from The Hindu to The New York Times. She is a contributing editor at Vogue and Architectural Digest, and heads Tina Brown Live Media in India, which produces the globally renowned journalism summit Women in the World.  Shah covers a variety of subjects, including art, culture, gender, design and education.