I am running for the ACSAA Board this year in hopes of building stronger bridges within our field, nationally and beyond. My commitment to creating more opportunities and greater accessibility is, in large part, because there were no South Asian art courses at Johns Hopkins when I was an art history major there in the 1990s. Consequently, I took a non-linear path of varied professional and academic experiences over the past 20 years. I have worked with artists, scholars, collectors, galleries, and museums around the world, and am now the Curator of Indian and South Asian Art at the Peabody Essex Museum.
My career began in 2000 as an art consultant in a gallery of 20th-century American art. I also did an MA in Hindu philosophy and Jungian psychoanalysis at the time, at the California Institute of Integral Studies. CIIS’ transdisciplinary and cross-cultural approach remains a consistent feature of my academic and curatorial work. In 2004, as a gallery director, I curated an exhibition of Himalayan art with renowned artist and specialist in Tibetan art, Robert Beer, and spent the next ten years immersed in Newar art of the Kathmandu Valley – lecturing and writing extensively, and building partnerships with a range of institutions in the United States, South and Southeast Asia. It was during my seven years of working with Serindia – known for their publications on Himalayan art – that I first began working with modern and contemporary Indian art.
I spent 13 years as an art consultant, gallery director, dealer and curator before entering a PhD program at Columbia where I wrote a dissertation on styling empire in Victorian India under the supervision of Vidya Dehejia and Anne Higonnet. My research incorporated British and European art into a study of Indian jewelry, fashion, photography and public spectacle, further affirming my tendency to think about and look at South Asian art through the widest possible lens. I think our field can only benefit from greater interdisciplinarity and I welcome the chance to work more closely with ACSAA to engage in conversations that connect South Asian art – in all its mediums and forms – with the world at large.
In addition to reinstalling and reinterpreting our historical and modern art collections, two things have been at the forefront of my work at PEM that also reflect my aims for the ACSAA Board: making material more accessible online/through social media, and building a more supportive and inclusive community. The current pandemic amplifies our need to think strategically about how we share, engage, and advance our work, and to think creatively about growing a network of scholars and supporters. I’d seek to further expand on ACSAA’s digital and social media presence, and to nurture a supportive space regardless of professional or academic backgrounds, credentials and ambitions. Virtual spaces can facilitate collaboration, and ACSAA plays an important role in responding to global challenges around education, access, preservation, and the freedom of expression. ACSAA’s response to the recent attacks at JNU was meaningful and commendable, and it’s important to keep refining methods for responding collectively and urgently. I would also like to develop ways to stay more connected with each other, and to offer more mentorship and feedback for those of us who benefit from such relationships.
What excites me most about joining the ACSAA board, though, is the chance to collaborate with others in our shared dedication to the field and its future. Great work has been done and there is great work still to do. I welcome the opportunity to be a part of that conversation.