Announcing the Jury - Leela Mukherjee Artist-Educator Grant 2024: announcing the jury
We are delighted to have Dr Kristine Michael and Dr. Sarada Natarajan join us on the jury for the inaugural Leela Mukherjee Artist-Educator Grant.
Dr Kristine Michael is a ceramic artist, arts educator, curator, researcher, writer on traditional and contemporary Indian ceramics based in New Delhi. She is also the co-editor of the new MRIN magazine on Indian ceramics published by Indian Ceramic Art Foundation, an artist run initiative. She is curriculum leader of Visual and Dramatic Arts at The British School, New Delhi, and is on the advisory panel for Charles Wallace Trust and Art Reach. She recently completed her PhD thesis on ‘Artisan To Artist: Ceramics in Colonial Indian Art Schools’ under Dr Naman Ahuja of School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU.
Among other awards in the past, she was awarded the Nehru Trust to study the collections at the V&A Museum as well as the FICA and IFA Grant for her research. She has been a curator for ceramics and glass and has published essays on 19th century and contemporary ceramics. She has recently curated the acclaimed exhibition “Multiple Realities: Voices of Indian Contemporary Ceramics’ at the Clayarch Gimhae Museum Korea and 'Shape Shifting- Fluid Geometries in Ceramics at Art Heritage New Delhi. She has been nominated as the Craft Curator for Serendipity Arts Festival Goa 2024.
Dr. Sarada Natarajan is Associate Professor of History at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru. She has taught art history and theory at the University of Hyderabad for over a decade, at Shiv Nadar University, and recently at Ashoka University and Krea University. She served as principal of the Bengaluru School of Visual Arts Evening College, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath in 2019-2020.
Sarada completed her MA and PhD in art history from the Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda. She was a postdoctoral fellow of Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices at the Humboldt University, Berlin, (2016-2017). From 2014 to 2019 she mentored young curators and artists for three successive Students’ Biennales, KMB. Her recent research contribution to the UNESCO dossier resulted in World Heritage Site recognition for Belur, Halebid and Somnathpura temples.
Sarada works with school teachers on various platforms to evolve creative strategies for promoting art education in schools. She illustrates for children, is a trekking enthusiast and volunteers for nature walks with children and small animal rescues. A trained Carnatic vocalist, Sarada experiments with music, voice and movement for theatre.
The Leela Mukherjee Artist-Educator Grant is made possible with the support of Welham Old Boys Society. To read more about the grant click HERE.