Arshiya’s Art-ivism

Arshiya Sethi

Formerly dance critic for Times of India, presented the archival National Programme of Dance and Music, and later became Advisor for Doordarshan, the National Television broadcaster. She built the India Habitat Centre as Delhi’s premium cultural venue apart from helping build other tangible and intangible cultural properties in India. She writes on cultural issues for books and journals, and runs the Kri Foundation, that works on Arts, Activism in the social and development Sector and in the generation of knowledge. She has conducted several workshops around issues of dance specially on the subtle and complex art of communication through the arts. Her doctoral research, from IIT Delhi, has been on the Politics of Patronage for the newly recognised “Classical” dance of India, Sattriya. She is presently on a Post Doc Fulbright- Nehru fellowship at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. This is her second Fulbright. She was attached to the Lincoln Centre, New York, as a Fulbright Arts Fellow from 2003-2004.

Her statement of her work:

“My research and writing focuses on the cultural ecology at the intersection of politics and society, especially in the governance structures associated with urban centres and their impact on artistic practices. Through a multi-disciplinary lens, I study the ways in which artistic practices link with changing politics, cultural scenarios, social justice paradigms, gender, environment and meme making in India”.

- Arshiya Sethi, PhD.