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Essential global perspective
For the past five years, the Kirloskar Visiting Scholars program has resonated across campus in powerful ways.
Established in 2013, the Vikram and Geetanjali Kirloskar Visiting Scholar in Painting endowment continues to make a profound impact at RISD. In strengthening dialogue between artists from the India/Pakistan region and the creative community on campus, Professor Dennis Congdon 75 PT and the Kirloskar Advisory Group have hosted a range of established and emerging scholars and artists who teach semester-long courses, lead shorter residencies, present talks and participate in panel discussions.
Building on the excitement generated by the inaugural Kirloskar scholar Chitra Ganesh in 2014, the Raqs Media Collective participated in a 2015–16 artist residency at the RISD Museum. The following year, renowned painter, multimedia artist and MacArthur Award winner Shahzia Sikander MFA 95 PT/PR visited campus on multiple occasions to participate in public talks, including hosting fellow MacArthur Award winners Julie Mehretu MFA 97 PT/PR and Rick Lowe for a panel discussion about contemporary art and culture and their respective roles in helping to shape it.
In November 2017 Pallavi Paul, a New Delhi-based video artist and filmmaker whose work is deeply engaged in the technologies of poetry and time travel, hosted an on-campus screening and discussion of three of her films. “I really enjoyed my conversation with [Paul],” recalls then-grad student Arghavan Khosravi MFA 18 PT. “We come from quite similar cultural backgrounds, so having a critic in my studio who is more familiar with the context of my work was truly delightful.”
“Students and the broader community clearly benefit from our visitors’ fresh thinking and wider horizons,” Congdon says. “The Kirloskars’ generous support fosters new work, new liaisons and new avenues of study—and for this our community is tremendously grateful.”
Professor Dennis Congdon 75 PT in conversation with Kirloskar Visiting Scholar Shahzia Sikander MFA 95 PT/PR.
