Cultural Practitioner
Arundhati Ghosh is a cultural practitioner based in Bangalore, India. After spending seven years in the corporate sector, Arundhati joined India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) as its first fundraiser in 2001. After serving the Foundation for 22 years, with 10 years between 2013 and 2023 as its Executive Director, she left the Foundation in May 2023.
Arundhati has a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Presidency College, Kolkata and a postgraduate degree in Management from the Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad. She also has a degree in classical dance and is a poet in Bangla. Her collection of poems Oshomoye phire esho nodi hoye was published in January 2023 by Lastrada Prakashana, Kolkata.
She has received recognition from several quarters for her work. In 2010 she received the Global Fundraiser Award from Resource Alliance International, the same year IFA won the ‘India NGO of the Year’ award in the medium category. She is a recipient of the fellowship under Chevening Clore Leadership Awards in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2015-2016 and has worked with the National Theatre, UK to recommend a strategy for their national reach. She is also a recipient of the Chevening Gurukul Scholarship for Leadership and Excellence at the London School of Economics, London in 2005. Arundhati was selected as one of the top three leaders in the city of Bangalore under the ‘Lead India’ campaign of The Times of India in 2008.
Arundhati sits on the advisory panel for The Museum of Art &Photography (MAP), Bangalore and is a Board Member of Sangama, Bangalore. Earlier, she has been a Trustee of Toto funds the Arts, and The Seagull Foundation for the Arts and an advisor for Blind with Camera. She is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar and was also their facilitator for the Young Cultural Innovators programme for five years. She has been a key facilitator for the Arts and Culture Entrepreneurship programme of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) based in Beirut for five years. She was also the key consultant to setting up the Indiaplaza India Book awards and led it through 2008 to 2010 in Bangalore. When the pandemic hit in March 2020 she raised resources for sex workers in Karnataka, weavers of Karnataka and performing artists across the country through online fundraisers. She is a member of the Core Team that has put together a capacity building programme for theatre practitioners across the country in collaboration with Junoon, under the aegis of India Theatre Forum, called SMART (Strategic Management for the Art of Theatre). She was also a curator of the International Theatre Festival of Kerala 2020 (ITFOK) organised by Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi.
She speaks on arts and philanthropy for leading Indian and international non-profit and cultural networks including On the Move, International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA), Festival Academy, Europe, UNESCO Berlin, The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), Kultura Nova Foundation, University of Leeds, Theatre Cooperative Turkey, among others. She also writes on arts and culture and these include Scroll, News 9, the Hindu, the Wire, Himal, Business Standard, Bengaluru Review among others.
