Alisha Sadikot, Co-Founder of Art & Wonderment, Habiba Begum, Education Associate of Chennai Photo Biennale, Daniella Praptono, founder of rurukids at ruangrupa and Jahnavi Phalkey, Founding Director of Science Gallery Bangalore, discuss how to widen access and participation of the next generation of art enthusiasts, students and viewers through creative collaborations and public programming.
Alisha Sadikot: Alisha Sadikot is an independant museum, art and heritage educator using walking tours as a tool to encourage critical and creative public engagement with Mumbai’s urban histories, art and museum collections. Specifically through Art & Wonderment (AWM), which she co-founded and runs, Alisha aims to broaden, deepen – and just make more fun – conversations on modern and contemporary art in the city. Formerly, Alisha was Curator, Education & Outreach, at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum.
Habiba Begum: Habiba Begum is a visual artist, arts educator, and curriculum developer based out of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She teaches photography, art expression, and art integration to students and educators through CPB Prism, the education wing of the Chennai Photo Biennale Foundation. Being a psychology graduate and a photographer, she aims to link both mediums in her practice through art therapy. She seeks to cultivate her teaching practice and classrooms as a source of liberation, often touching upon themes such as masculinity, climate change, identity, and self-expression through the medium of photography.
Jahnavi Phalkey: Founding Director of Science Gallery, Bengaluru since 2018, Jahnavi Phalkey has an exemplary academic career, and is a curator, author, editor, producer, and director. Prior to her current role, she held a tenured faculty position at King’s College, London. Jahnavi was Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (the Institute of Advanced Study, Berlin) and has been a Scholar-in-Residence at the Deutsches Museum, Munich.
Daniella Praptono: Daniella Fitria Praptono is an artist whose works focus on children and women. Besides managing regular workshops for urban women and teaching Arts Introduction for Kids in Gudskul, she also manages financial affairs for ruangrupa, a contemporary art collective based in Jakarta. In 2010, she founded rurukids, a place for artists, children and their educators to share knowledge, play and create something together.
Titled ‘Align & Disrupt’, the talks programme curated by independent curator and educator Shaleen Wadhwana, and supported by Shiv Nadar – Institution Of Eminence, aims to align voices of leading artists and arts professionals on critical issues in the arts ecosystem, and collectively disrupt the status quo to shape a more aware and inclusive art world of the future. For the first time, the key learnings and insights from these talks will be documented in an action-plan which will be widely circulated and made accessible to the public on the India Art Fair website. All talks will be conducted in Indian Sign Language.