India Art Fair BMW Art Talk: What Makes Art Happen? - Collaborative Cultural Economy

Supported by JSW and curated by independent researcher and curator Shaleen Wadhwana, the 2026 Talks Programme– Rising to Challenge, brings together artists, curators, thinkers, and cultural leaders to address the overarching question: What Makes Art Happen? Each panel responds to this question with a “challenge”— from long-standing issues of access, accountability and social difference, to urgent contemporary concerns such as Artificial Intelligence and indigenizing cultural spaces.

All talks are conducted in English and Indian Sign Language (ISL), with some talks in Hindi, Punjabi, Odia, and Saura* live translated for the audience.

*Saura (also known as Soura or Sora) is recognised as one of the oldest Indigenous languages of the Indian subcontinent

THEMATIC PREMISE

Showcasing art, history, heritage and culture to various audiences requires monetary infrastructure, curatorial support, and consistent direction which centers the art-maker. It is this very cultural economy that ‘makes art happen’, however, until very recently [Western] frameworks of cultural economy have shaped the worlds of art and commerce in the footprints of colonisation for People of the Global Majority. Now, with an unprecedented amount of State-led budget cuts for arts and cultural funding, newer adaptive models of cultural economy are the need of the hour across the globe. To build this collaborative cultural economy, we look to cultural leadership across the world — to ask how we prepare for such historic changes. Let’s hear from those who have walked this path, shaped it and are reshaping it.