Shaleen Wadhwana

Biography

Shaleen Wadhwana is an independent arts educator, researcher, and curator who brings audiences closer to South Asian history, art, heritage, and culture through galleries, museums, and heritage sites. She is academically trained in Art History (SOAS, London), Cultural Heritage Law (University of Geneva–UNESCO), Arts Appreciation (National Museum, Delhi), and History (Delhi University). She represents South Asia at KADIST, a global non-profit contemporary art organization.

In 2022, her research on the cultural repatriation history of ten British Museum artifacts for The Unfiltered History Tour won India twelve Cannes Lions awards in France—marking a first-time-ever achievement for the country. Her earlier research on cultural repatriation was showcased at the Art and Antiquities Conference in Mumbai in 2019.

Her practice explores how historical object histories and contemporary art address intersectional social differences in, and of, South Asia. She is the co-creator of IMMERSE, one of India’s only artist+curator bilingual residencies supporting socially conscious emerging artists from lesser-known art schools, housed at Somaiya Vidyavihar University, Mumbai. She also co-founded two educational walking tour initiatives: The Chime Project and The Cities of Dehli. It has used the Musical Instruments Gallery at the National Museum, Delhi, and various Delhi heritage sites as teaching tools to explore musical history and archaeological trails, respectively. Her audiences have ranged from students and culture professionals to teachers, musicians, government officials, and international travelers. She has designed and conducted the India Art Fair Public Art Tour Guides Training Programme since 2022.

Shaleen is one of two curators representing India in the India–Australia Curatorial Exchange MAITRI Project, part of the Indian Ocean Craft Triennal (2025–2027) in Australia. Her research focuses on the craft histories of Aboriginal communities in Australia. The collaborative outcomes with Australian colleagues will include symposiums and exhibition-making.

She is currently researching her next institutional exhibition, which brings together narratives from Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh into conversation, exploring intangible and tangible histories of objects, memories, textiles, and territories through the lenses of language and gender.

Shaleen Wadhwana, Independent Curator, Arts Educator and Researcher in New Delhi, India, has been awarded by Chitra Talwar.