Supported by JSW and curated by independent researcher and curator Shaleen Wadhwana, the 2026 Talks Programme– Rising to Challenge, brings together artists, curators, thinkers, and cultural leaders to address the overarching question: What Makes Art Happen? Each panel responds to this question with a “challenge”— from long-standing issues of access, accountability and social difference, to urgent contemporary concerns such as Artificial Intelligence and indigenizing cultural spaces.
All talks are conducted in English and Indian Sign Language (ISL), with some talks in Hindi, Punjabi, Odia, and Saura* live translated for the audience.
*Saura (also known as Soura or Sora) is recognised as one of the oldest Indigenous languages of the Indian subcontinent
THEMATIC PREMISE
Showcasing art, history, heritage and culture to various audiences requires monetary infrastructure, curatorial support, and consistent direction which centers the art-maker. It is this very cultural economy that ‘makes art happen’, however, until very recently [Western] frameworks of cultural economy have shaped the worlds of art and commerce in the footprints of colonisation for People of the Global Majority. Now, with an unprecedented amount of State-led budget cuts for arts and cultural funding, newer adaptive models of cultural economy are the need of the hour across the globe. To build this collaborative cultural economy, we look to cultural leadership across the world — to ask how we prepare for such historic changes. Let’s hear from those who have walked this path, shaped it and are reshaping it.
SPEAKERS
SIR TRISTAM HUNT
Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A)
Sir Tristram Hunt is Director of the V&A—a family of museums dedicated to creativity’s power. Since 2017, he has championed design education in UK schools, encouraged debate around global collections’ history, and overseen transition to a multi-site museum. Six UK venues now include V&A South Kensington, V&A Wedgwood Collection, V&A Dundee, Young V&A, V&A East Storehouse, and V&A East Museum (opening 2026). Previously Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central and Shadow Secretary of State for Education, he holds a doctorate in Victorian history from Cambridge University. Author of several books including The Lives of the Objects (2019), he is a member of the UK Soft Power Council and a governor of The Courtauld. Sir Tristram Hunt received a knighthood in the King’s New Years Honours List 2026.
DR. ALEXANDRA MUNROE
Senior Curator At Large, Global Arts at the Guggenheim Museum, New York
Alexandra Munroe, PhD is Senior Curator At Large, Global Arts at the Guggenheim Museum, New York. She is an award-winning curator, Asia scholar and author focusing on polycentric modernisms and institutional global-arts strategy. A pioneering authority on modern and contemporary art from East Asia, she is internationally renowned for her early and abiding advocacy of global art history, arguing for the fundamental transculturalism of certain artistic movements in Japan, China, and Korea – and of modernism more broadly. The Japanese government bestowed Munroe with the Japan Foundation Award (2017) and the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs Award (2018), in recognition of her contributions to Japanese art; and was the 2024 recipient of the Japan Society Award and the 2025 Asia Society GameChanger Award. She is a trustee of the American Academy in Rome and is Chair of the Aspen Music Festival and School.
NORA LAWRENCE
Executive Director of Storm King Art Center
Nora Lawrence is executive director of Storm King Art Center, a 500-acre outdoor museum featuring large-scale sculpture and site-specific commissions in New York’s Hudson Valley. In this role, she has helped grow the center’s audience fourfold and bring in a new generation of artists. Previously at Storm King, Lawrence was artistic director and chief curator and, before that, senior curator. Earlier in her career, Lawrence worked in the Museum of Modern Art’s painting and sculpture department. She is the author and co-author of several contemporary art publications and essays. Lawrence has received grants from the Luce Foundation, Center for Advanced Studies in Visual Arts at the National Gallery, and the Office of Contemporary Art, Norway, among others.
DR. AMIN JAFFER
Director of The Al Thani Collection,
Artistic Director of the 2025 Islamic Arts Biennale, Jeddah.
Dr. Amin Jaffer is Director of The Al Thani Collection and Artistic Director of the 2025 Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah. He directs The Al Thani Collection museum space at the Hôtel de la Marine, Paris, which opened in 2021. Previously, he served as International Director of Asian Art at Christie’s (2007-17) and as a Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum (1995-2007). His publications include Furniture from British India and Ceylon (2001), The Art of the Indian Cabinet-Maker (2002) and Made for Maharajas (2006). He has curated major exhibitions including Encounters: the meeting of Asia and Europe (V&A, 2004) and Maharaja: The Splendour of India’s Royal Courts (V&A: 2009) as well as exhibitions of The Al Thani Collection at museums around the world (Metropolitan Museum of Art 2014, Miho Museum 2016, Grand Palais 2017, Doge’s Palace 2017, Forbidden City 2018, Chateau de Fontainebleau 2018, Tokyo National Museum 2019). Since 2021 he has been responsible for an ambitious exhibition programme at The Al Thani Collection including Treasures from The Al Thani Collection (2021-2), Medieval Treasures from the V&A (2023), Le Gout de la Renaissance (2024), Dynastic Jewels (2025-6).
TASNEEM ZAKARIA MEHTA
Managing Trustee and Director of the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum
Tasneem Zakaria Mehta is an art historian, curator, designer, conservationist, and cultural activist. Her work for the museum, received UNESCO’s 2005 Asia Pacific Award of Excellence for Cultural Restoration. She was the former Vice Chairman and Mumbai Convenor of INTACH, and is currently on Modern and Contemporary Art Councils at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and is a member of Asia Society India Centre’s Advisory Council for Arts and Culture. She has written numerous articles and books on art and culture, curated over 25 exhibitions of contemporary and historical art at the Museum, recipient of several awards and was invited to speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos. She is also a founding trustee of the Kochi Muziris biennale and was recognised by Harvard University for their Star Women programme.
MODERATOR
MORTIMER CHATTERJEE
Director, Chatterjee & Lal
Mortimer Chatterjee and his wife, Tara Lal, founded Chatterjee & Lal in 2003. Based in Mumbai, the gallery presents contemporary and historical work across art and design, and the founders also advise major corporate collections. Chatterjee has authored and edited several publications, including a study of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research art collection and the edited volume ‘Moving Focus, India’.