Guided Walk
Closing Paper Gardens: Art, Botany and Empire
Shrey Maurya
Before we say goodbye to the plants, join us for one last curator-led walkthrough of the exhibition Paper Gardens: Art, Botany, and Empire.
Between the 17th and 20th centuries, the Indian subcontinent was the site of extensive botanical surveys under colonial rule. Plant collection and classification were closely tied to imperial economic, medical, and political interests, and botanical illustration played a central role in this project. Bringing together a new and historically significant collection of botanical art from this period, the exhibition draws on recent scholarship to recover the often uncredited identities and histories of the Indian artists who made them.
Shrey Maurya, curator of the exhibition and Research Director at Impart, leads this walkthrough through the layered histories embedded in these artworks, and their relevance to how we understand the natural world today.
Paper Gardens: Art, Botany and Empire, marks the continuation of a sustained, years-long collaboration between MAP and Impart — an online platform fostering greater public engagement with the art and cultural histories of South Asia.
Bookings
Shrey Maurya
Shrey Maurya studied Political Science at Lady Shri Ram College, the University of Delhi and holds an MA in Visual Art from Ambedkar University, Delhi. Her research spans early modern and colonial visual cultures. She has worked on exhibitions, research projects, and public programmes that foreground rigorous scholarship while broadening public access to art history.
IMPART
Founded in 2022, Impart (formerly MAP Academy) is an online platform dedicated to fostering deeper engagement with South Asia’s art and cultural histories. The organisation develops comprehensive, freely accessible resources that bridge connections between museums, universities, cultural institutions, and the public.
Impart’s initiatives include the first-ever Encyclopedia of Art from South Asia, spanning over 2,500 entries; a suite of Learning Resources, including courses, live lectures, online talks, and videos; Perspectives, an editorial programme featuring contributions from across the region and beyond; and a range of Special Projects, including multimedia efforts, grants, and organisational partnerships. With more than 1.5 million annual visitors, over 15,000 active learners, and a growing network of collaborators, Impart is building a robust online community for art from South Asia.
Impart is a unit of the Art & Photography Foundation and an institutional partner of the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), Bengaluru.
