Artist's Eye: A Journey Of Resilience & Resurgence

Mustansir Dalvi is a poet, translator and editor. He has three books of poems in English, Brouhahas of Cocks (Poetrywala, 2013), Cosmopolitician (Poetrywala, 2018) and Walk (Yavanika Press, 2020/ Poetrywala 2021). His poems have been translated into French, Croatian, Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi. Mustansir Dalvi’s 2012 English translation of Muhammad Iqbal’s influential Shikwa and Jawaab-e-Shikwa from the Urdu as Taking Issue and Allah’s Answer (Penguin Classics) has been described as ‘insolent and heretical’. He is the editor of Man without a Navel a collection of translations of Hemant Divate’s poems from the Marathi (2018, Poetrywala). Mustansir Dalvi was born in Bombay. He teaches architecture in Mumbai.

Fawzan Husain is a photojournalist, a creative artist, teacher and an organic farmer. A self-taught photographer, Fawzan has spent 33 years as a photojournalist. After completing a post-graduate degree in journalism from the Bombay School of Journalism, Fawzan joined the Mumbai-based newspaper Mid-Day. He later joined India Today and worked there for over a decade, travelling across India on assignments. Fawzan held his first solo show in 1992; and has had eight shows and 12 group exhibitions since. Fawzan has published two books `Between Bombay & Mumbai' and `The Silver Screen & Beyond'. He has also given a talk on `Re-discovering Photography' at TEDx Ahmedabad - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWOzo_IWpBo . When not taking pictures, Fawzan is an avid organic farmer and loves to get his hands and feet dirty digging into the red soil of his farm at Dahanu near Mumbai. His ultimate aim is to ensure that the food on his dining table is 100% organic.

Raveesh Jaiswal is a theatre director, actor, playwright and HR professional. His theatre career spans over 12 years and he has been a part of over 40 English plays. He has also directed American, British and Swedish actors. He has trained at Stagecraft Theatre (Nagpur), Barry John Acting Studio (Mumbai) & the International School of Screen Acting (London). He is an alumnus of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, and holds a Masters Degree in Human Resources Management & Labour Relations. He also has 6 years of corporate experience encompassing Factory & Corporate HR and has worked and interned with some of the prominent corporate brands of India in mid to senior-level management positions namely; CEAT Tyres, GlaxoSmithKline, Marico, Wipro & National Stock Exchange of India. His diverse background and considerable experience in the theatre, as well as the corporate world, makes him one of the most sought after corporate theatre practitioners in the country.

Hanif Kureshi is Artist Director at St+art India Foundation. An artist and a designer working with Street Art and typography, Hanif absorbs the surroundings into his works and evokes a sense of memory grabbing the attention of the viewers. He has an ironic and sarcastic approach, working in multiple mediums combining into a single composition. His ongoing project, hand-painted type, attempts to conserve and archive the vernacular street typography of India, which he felt is a characteristic medium of Indian traditions seeming to be lost. Hanif is also the co-founder of St+art India Foundation which aims to make art accessible to a larger audience through the series of Street Art festivals. His work has been exhibited at the London Design Biennale, Venice Biennale, Centre Pompidou Paris, Triennale Design Museum, Milan, Sikka Art Fair Dubai among others. In 2016, GQ magazine named Hanif as one of the 50 most influential young Indians.

Joyoti Roy heads Strategy and Marketing at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), Mumbai. She is interested in the social and civic role of cultural organizations and believes that arts institutions have the key responsibility to shape and reflect people's futures. She has been working in the field of museums, conservation, and culture for over seventeen years. Up until 2017 she was heading the Outreach Department at the National Museum, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, and has worked for both government and non-government institutions in India. Joyoti has been a Charles Wallace India Trust Awardee for the year 2008 for a fellowship program in conservation of contemporary art at the Tate Gallery, London. She was the Clore Leadership Fellow for Culture representing India to the UK in 2017–18 and worked with the Victoria and Albert Museum, London for their upcoming museum and collection research facility in East London. She has coordinated several national and international exhibitions on art. At the CSMVS she is responsible for overall projects strategy, fundraising, exhibitions, outreach initiatives, and two special projects on the conservation of the Museum’s Grade I heritage building and the establishment of an Ancient World Gallery that is sponsored by the Getty Foundation, USA. She is a trained Hindustani singer and a theatre person.