The Art & Photography Foundation's trustees and advisory panel members bring together years of experience and expertise in fields ranging from the arts, cultural leadership and business to diplomacy.  

 

Arundhati Nag is a prominent polyglot actor and theatre personality, who has been involved with multilingual theatre in India for over 25 years. She is the founder and Managing Trustee of the Sanket Trust that runs Ranga Shankara, a theatre in Bangalore. Nag has also been involved in several television and film projects, and has received both the Karnataka State Film Award (1985) and the National Film Award (2010). Nag has been presented the Padma Shri (2010) by the President of India for her untiring efforts and tremendous achievements in the Arts, and also conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in Theatre Acting (2008) by India’s National Academy of Music, Dance and Theatre.

Abhishek Poddar is a businessman, and prominent collector and patron of the arts in India. Poddar is involved in various family group companies with diverse interests and also serves on the advisory committees of several cultural institutions including the Deccan Heritage Foundation and FIND (Foundation Inde-Europe de Nouveaux Dialogues or the India-Europe Foundation for New Dialogues) headquartered in Rome.

Radhika Poddar is a patron of Indian art and design, and has been an important part of the formation of the Museum of Art & Photography and the documentation of its core collection. She is involved in the running of various family group companies, as well as being the vision behind Cinnamon, a lifestyle store with branches in Cochin and Bangalore. Through Cinnamon she promotes Indian design by retailing and commissioning collections by traditional craftspeople, as well as contemporary Indian designers.

Nirupama Rao is the former Indian Foreign Secretary (2009 – 2011) and Ambassador of India to the United States of America (2011- 2013). Working in the Indian Foreign Service from 1973 to 2011, she has served in various capacities in several countries across the world, and was the first woman to be appointed as the Spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and Ambassador to China. Mrs. Rao has been a Fellow at Harvard University and Brown University. In 2014, she also received the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship, in connection with her ongoing book project on the diplomatic history of relations between India and China.

Board of Trustees