The Full Story
Arundhati Ghosh has spent three decades watching the arts ecosystem from the inside — as a practitioner, a cultural administrator, and a social activist based in Bengaluru. She has seen what institutions do well and what they quietly prevent. In this conversation, she speaks with rare directness about what has changed for young artists, what hasn’t, and what she believes institutions owe the people they claim to serve.
Q1
What shifts have you noticed in how young artists navigate the ecosystem today?
There have been many shifts. Let me mention three that seem significant.
First: artists entering the ecosystem today are more aware of opportunities that exist and eager to learn how to access them. I come across more young artists wanting to learn how to write proposals, fundraise, and manage their portfolios than I used to. These are no longer seen as ‘management things unbecoming of artists.’
Second: earlier, most artists had an apparent disdain for money — apparent, because this often did not reflect in how they engaged with the art market. Young artists today are much more honest. They openly say they want to be successful, earn well, and live good lives. They are willing to learn and negotiate dynamics of power more readily.
Third: more and more young artists are coming from working-class homes. This is not just changing the kind of work we see, but I believe it will also begin to shift the ecosystem of the art world, which has for too long been dominated by the middle and upper-middle classes and castes. I look forward to seeing how this changes power structures — if and when it does.
What responsibility do institutions, curators, and platforms carry?
Q2
Institutions, curators, and platforms should first understand that their role is not to be gatekeepers but facilitators, catalysts, and provocateurs. Especially at the fragile time when artists are still finding their way, the work of these institutions should be to strengthen support systems, provide funding, and build opportunities so that artists can take risks with more courage.
Most of all, I feel their job is to encourage artists to fail. Fail many times, fail wonderfully, make mistakes, mess it up. Have space to not be afraid of failure, but to understand its vital role in the journey.
“Their job is to encourage artists to fail — fail many times, fail wonderfully, make mistakes, mess it up.”
“Maybe there should be a Foundation for Artistic Failure somewhere.”
Q3
What voices do we need to pay closer attention to in the next decade?
We need to pay close attention to voices coming from the margins — of gender, caste, sexuality, and region. Look for artists who communicate in languages other than English, whose imaginations are created in cultural landscapes different from middle-class, urban, upper-caste worlds. Look for artists from homes where art was never discussed but lives of toil and strife were endured.
We must create space for those who are redefining not just what art could mean, but also critiquing the ways we live our lives — our relationships with nature, with each other, with ourselves. And let us look out for irreverence, for impatience with the done and dusted, and for a passionate zeal for new adventures.
What are young artists underestimating about building a life in the arts?
Q4
Arundhati Ghosh is a writer, cultural practitioner, and social activist based in Bengaluru, with three decades of experience in arts and culture.
I would urge young artists to live these many lives with passion, curiosity, kindness, and enthusiasm. To be part of the lives of others as others are parts of theirs. While an artist’s pursuit may sometimes be solitary, the journey never is. It is connected to the many worlds we inhabit with myriad co-travellers.
A life in the arts is never solely a life in the arts. It bears the impact and impressions of all the lives we lead — in our families, communities, solidarities, and worlds of various engagements. The depth of an artist’s life is foraged from these lived experiences.