Memory Maps

Aliyeh Rizvi is a history-writer and memory-archivist. She is the founder of Native Place, that looks to connect
people to place more meaningfully through walking, place-based storytelling and learning. As a place-based

storyteller, she works to transform the individual experience into collective narratives that reveal the city’s socio-
cultural and emotional landscape. These stories of place are told through research-based writing and book

publications — city, family and institutional histories, exhibition content development, wayfinding and signage
projects, brand histories and design collateral for heritage, travel and local culture. Work with place-based learning
includes facilitating onsite interactions with our local history and culture as walking workshops, history walks and
tours. She is also the co-founder of the Memory Maps Project, a psycho-geographic exploration that integrates
walking, participatory storytelling and arts’ practice with memory and imagination, in order to explore belonging,
identity and ownership in the city.
She has been a regular contributor for leading travel, culture, craft and design publications including the National
Geographic Traveller, and a weekly columnist on Bengaluru’s local history and culture, for the Bangalore Mirror
(TOI Group). She was also an invitee to the Bangalore Tourism Advisory Committee (BTAC), initiated by the
Ministry of Tourism, Government of Karnataka (GoK).

Arzu Mistry is an educator and artist who maintains a high level of dedication and enthusiasm for the role the arts can play in pedagogy, advocacy, transformation, and intervention for building sustainable, inclusive communities.

Arzu is the co-founder of the Art in Transit and placeARTS public art projects hosted by the Srishti Manipal Institute in the city of Bangalore. These projects use the arts as a medium for dialogue between people and the urban spaces they inhabit.

Arzu co-facilitates the Accordion Book Project and is the co-creator of the artist book Unfolding Practice: Reflections on Learning and Teaching. Her art and education practice connect teachers, youth, and families with place using memory, story, play, and design practices through interdisciplinary education, community art facilitation, integrated curriculum development, livelihoods training, teacher professional development, and educational research and practice.

Arzu has a BFA from the California College of the Arts and an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is currently pursuing her doctoral work at Teachers College, Columbia University.