Vaishnavi Kambadur

Biography

Vaishnavi Kambadur gained early career experience at knitting mills, export houses, and independent design studios in India. At every stage, she sought inspiration and engaged with art and museum spaces, which shaped her perspective on the intersection of creativity and cultural institutions such as the Crafts Museum in Delhi. This foundation led her to pursue an MA in Fashion Studies at The New School for Social Research, where she was awarded the Geraldine Stutz Award as a young professional. Museums became integral to her education through electives at the Cooper Hewitt Museum.

Under Professor Hazel Clark’s supervision, her MA thesis introduced her to fashion curation, which became evident throughout her subsequent work. Using ethnographic methodology, she interned at the Textile Arts Centre in Brooklyn, where she engaged with diasporic artists working with fiber as their medium. As a graduate teaching assistant for courses including Fashioning Micro-utopias and Fashion History, she brought curators like Harold Koda into the classroom. Simultaneously, she worked at Christie’s in their Indian and Southeast Asian art department, exploring South Asian modern and contemporary art, particularly from Baroda and Bengal. Her fascination deepened when she understood how a Ranjani Shettar artwork from Bangalore related to craft traditions from North Karnataka.

After three years in New York, she returned to India in 2019 to join the Museum of Art Photography (MAP) in various capacities. As part of the founding exhibitions team at MAP, she contributed to more than seven physical exhibitions and eight online experiences. Working at a new museum in India allowed her to explore inclusion methods, such as developing detailed audio guides. Currently, she balances her curatorial career with a teaching role at Pearl Academy, Bengaluru. She is committed to evolving as a curator by responding to the needs of a new generation.

Vaishnavi Kambadur, Independent Curator and Assistant Professor, Pearl Academy, Kala Hubba, Bengaluru, India, has been awarded by Chitra Talwar.