This episode we are extremely excited to be talking to the boundary defying collector, philanthropist, and general art world powerhouse, Nadia Samdani. 

Based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Nadia is the founder and director of the Samdani Art Foundation, which she launched in 2011 and has now become one of the leading non-profits focused on supporting the arts in and across South East Asia. 

In her role as Director of the Samdani Art Foundation, Nadia led the launch of the Dkaha Art Summit in 2012, a multifaceted, interdisciplinary biennial that brings together curators, artists, and other arts professionals from around the globe. 

Nadia is also very active philanthropically. She and her husband Rajeeb were founding members of the Tate’s South Asian Acquisition Committee.  And In 2017, with her husband Rajeeb, she was the first South Asian arts patron to receive the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award. 

In 2014 the Samdanis were nominated in the Young Collector of the Year category for the Forbes India Art Award, in recognition of their impressive collection of artists such as Anish Kapoor, Bharti Kher, Jitish Kallat, Ravinder Reddy, Chitra Ganesh, and Subodh Gupta. 

Nadia and Rajeeb plan to soon expand their art empire with another major achievement: the opening of the Srihatta–Samdani Art Centre and Sculpture Park, which is currently slated to be inaugurated in 2021 in Sylhet, a city in eastern Bangladesh. 

Some artists discussed in this episode:

Links: Samdani Art Foundation, Dhaka Art Summit, Srihatta

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