15 November, 2026
03:30 PM - 04:30 PM
Aditya Birla Auditorium | On-site
For much of the twentieth century, the story of folk and tribal art in Indian modernism was told as one of influence. The modern artist looked, borrowed and transformed, and the tradition stayed a source rather than a partner. However, alongside the borrowing there has always been exchange - encounters in workshops, villages, publishing houses and residencies where artists from different worlds created and expressed together.
This panel asks what it takes for that exchange to be real collaboration, and what it produces. It looks at the conditions that make it work: credit and authorship, fair terms, shared decision-making and mutual learning. It also asks who gains from the partnership and who decides what the finished work looks like. The conversation moves from historical precedents to current practice, where tradition-bearers such as Warli, Gond and Bhil artists increasingly set the terms themselves, working with curators, publishers, institutions and fellow artists across India and abroad.
The ART MUMBAI Speaker Series is presented by the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art
The Meeting Ground Scenes from the KNMA Collection. Image courtesy CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2026
Dr. Preeti Bahadur Ramaswami is the Senior Curator and Head for Indian Classical and Folk and Tribal Arts at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA). She has been leading the development of programming and collection for the Indian Classical, Folk and Tribal Arts wing of the museum since August 2024, focussing on aligning museum objects with scholarly data and with planning exhibitions, publications and programs. As an art historian and curator specializing in Indian miniature painting and manuscript illustrations, her focus is on interweaving aesthetic, literary and performative traditions. Her work is interdisciplinary; apart from manuscript illustrations she has also worked on vernacular and indigenous artistic practices from Central India. With a PhD on Ragamala miniatures in 2002, she has since taught art history at various prestigious institutes including the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, and at Ashoka University. Her curatorial projects include Nauras: the Many Arts of the Deccan (National Museum, New Delhi 2015), and The Figure of Sound (Anant Art gallery, New Delhi, 2023). She is the recipient of fellowships from the India Foundation for the Arts and the Nehru Trust for Indian Collections at the V&A.
Anubhav Nath is a full-time arts professional with an interest in writing, social development, mentorship and historical automobiles. He founded Ojas Art, an arts initiative promoting Indian contemporary arts with a focus on the Indian Indigenous Arts. His initiatives include, the transformation of a heritage property into a bustling arts and culture center in Delhi. He curated the Indigenous Pavilion for the inaugural edition of the India Art Architecture and Design Biennale at Red Fort in 2023. Some other curatorial projects are: Freedom to March which travelled to Washington DC, London and Trinidad & Tobago; Expressions at Tihar a three-year project involving young prisoners and contemporary artists and Order in Chaos for the Lalit Kala Akademi. Nath established the Ojas Art Award to help recognise talented artists in the indigenous arts and is an advisor to art and literature festivals like Jaipur Literature Festival and Kabira Festival in Varanasi. He contributes to publications and has been a speaker at multiple platforms and is a member of the FICCI Arts & Culture Committee. He is a Trustee at Salaam Baalak Trust (SBT), an organization that provides education, vocational training and residential services to over 100,000 street and working children. He co-founded the Ramchander Nath Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that focuses on the dissemination of arts to marginalized communities.
