TAKE Philanthropy explores the evolving landscape of art philanthropy within a globalized context, highlighting its influence on artistic innovation, cultural diplomacy, and community development. In showcasing the country’s most impactful philanthropists, it is essential to amplify the voices of Artist-Philanthropists, who are not only making remarkable contributions to the art world but also actively supporting emerging artists and strengthening the creative ecosystem. As artists have chosen to support various causes close to their hearts, we speak to the Founder Trustee and initiator of the Shyama Foundation, artist Ravi Agarwal. The exclusive probes into the impetus behind his Philanthropic endeavours, understanding how his initiatives have made an impact on arts, culture and ecology.
Artist Ravi Agarwal
1. What does philanthropy mean to you?
The term ‘Philanthropy’, comes from ideas around wealth and ‘giving’. However, for us at the Shyama Foundation, it is more about sharing, helping deepen practice and discourse in the intersection of art and ecology. We do believe that the moment of ecological crises needs creative approaches, which are based on departing from existing institutional frameworks and logic. Mainstream structures and pedagogies have failed us, and we need to propose new possibilities in this moment of ecological collapse. To achieve our mission to promote the reconfiguration of the idea of nature as integral to human society and to promote an inclusive ecology, we are trying to help create a supportive, inclusive and discursive ecology by building networks of like-mindedness. This is also achieved by facilitating collaboration and conversations with artists and academics from elsewhere.
2. What inspired you to use your platform as an artist to give back to the community? Was there a defining moment?
Artists here have little opportunity, either in art schools or outside, to tap into multi-disciplinary engagements of the ecological discourse. As is, the subject of ecology is very wide-ranging and cuts through philosophy, history, political sciences, social sciences, natural sciences, etc. Even in academia, rarely does one find such an expansive articulation, in which artists can engage easily. Besides on the whole, the structure of academia is such that it is built to work within its own silo and does not easily address those outside of it. We believe that artistic practices, which are rooted in our cultural, social and political landscapes, reflect embodied positions of identity, culture and social hierarchies and hence, intrinsically of nature. Such a terrain has been largely flattened in the so-called ‘West’.
From my long engagement as an artist, curator and environmentalist, I felt such terrains have things to express which can show new ways of thinking for ‘futures’. Equity, justice and nature are intertwined, and this lens is critical to our thinking at the Foundation. We try to support and help deepen such artistic assertions on their “own” terms, and not only as interpretations through readymade frameworks from elsewhere. These practices offer fresh dialogues to help reframe the very notion of ‘nature’ itself.
3. How does your experience as an artist influence the causes you choose to support in your philanthropy?
My innate curiosity as a person is the premise of my artistic practice. Many questions come to mind that my person and hence practice seek to ask, such as, how the idea of nature is produced, what is the idea of the non-human, what is the relationship of science and art, the idea of the ‘self’ and community, or the colonisation of knowledge and language, etc. As evident these topics are broad and there are crossovers and overlaps since this is what the ecological question brings forth. The frameworks for the ‘Shared Ecologies’ program aim to help create such ways and thinking in which practices are read broadly, contextually and historically.
4. How do you see the relationship between your art and your philanthropic efforts? Do they inspire one another?
For me, art shows the way. The foundation is driven by the same creative purpose and explorative inquiry.
5. Philanthropy can take many forms. Beyond financial support, how else do you contribute to the causes that are important to you?
We are less than 3 years old, and slowly developing the foundation’s activities. Through grants, forums, and programs we attempt to widen conversations around the topics of ecology and located-ness. For example, we are currently putting together an archive of artist films that speak to the questions and circumstances heightened by growing ecological crises. We have found different points of collaboration with other institutions to showcase these films. We are interested in the intersections that present themselves in discursive formats –such as an exhibition panel we hosted, sets of artist presentations, talks, and more. We initiated an annual nature writing magazine last year, and are currently commissioning the second issue, for which we invited a guest editor. We work through collaborations with artists and practitioners, as well as other institutions, aiming to define a new, unrealised field through our activities. We are interested in strengthening an ecology of practitioners and practices through our efforts.
6. What challenges do you face when balancing your artistic practice with your philanthropic commitments?
I wish to be a fellow practitioner, probing for answers, like anyone else and looking alongside them, not operating from the stance or mindset of a grantmaker. All our grants are either through open calls, independent juries or nominations by our Advisory Panel. I have little say in it, and consciously so.
7. What are the ways to sustain a philanthropic institution?
From my recent experience with Shyama Foundation, but a longer experience of 25 years with Toxics Link, which is not a philanthropic organisation but works as a not-for-profit; I have learnt that these are essential to have in place:
1) Clear vision and mission
2) Corpus of funds
3) Independence, transparency and fairness in processes
4) Clear and transparent governance
5) Internally creative and healthy working atmosphere, are important – the idea is to build trust, create a healthy working environment and a sense of belonging with the community.
8. Have you noticed a shift in how the art world embraces philanthropy? How do you think artists can contribute to social good?
There are so many more opportunities artists have today, both in terms of grants, as well as for residences and international exposure, more so than ever before. However we still lack a critical environment, safe spaces to discuss and share works, and I feel the art world here is very hierarchal and not always fair to artists. Hardly anyone provides an artist’s fee or gives the required agency and respect to artists, irrespective of their place in the art market. The institutions which govern art, consider themselves bigger than the artist – this needs to reverse. It is an ethical shift.
9. Can you share an example of how your philanthropy has impacted a community or cause in a way that mirrors the values reflected in your art?
These are ongoing, and we do not wish to claim them. As mentioned earlier, I’m not entirely comfortable with the ideas around wealth and ‘giving’ and that, it is more about sharing and engagement. Artists have many temporal and spatial impacts, some subtle and some more obvious. That is the nature of art, and we should not reduce it to ‘NGO impact’ analysis. Above all, we hope we are helping artists increase trust in their own practices which are often fragile, in the intersection we are working with. For further information, do visit www.sharedecologies.org
Ravi Agarwal has an interdisciplinary practice as an artist, photographer, environmental campaigner, writer, and curator whose work bridges art and activism. His practice addresses the complex relationship between nature and its future through photography, video, text, and installation. Ravi’s work has been exhibited at major biennales including Lahore (2024), Havana (2019), Yinchuan (2018), Kochi (2016), Sharjah (2013), and Documenta XI (2002). He has curated large public art projects like Yamuna-Elbe and Embrace Our Rivers (2009), and served as photography curator for the Serendipity Arts Festival (2018, 2019). He was the curatorial advisor for the exhibition Carbon (2024) at the Science Gallery, Bengaluru, and is a Co-Convenor for the upcoming Bergan Assembly 2025. Ravi is also the founder of the environmental NGO Toxics Link (www.toxicslink.org) and The Shyama Foundation, (www.sharedecologies.org) which supports initiatives at the intersection of art and ecology in India. His recent projects include Samtal Jameen, Samtal Jameer (www.multispeciesart.org), and a photobook The Power Plant – fragments in time. He is a recipient of the UN Award for Chemical Safety and the Ashoka Fellowship. Read more about the artist at www.raviagarwal.com.
