Last week, the Mittal Institute was honored to host Naiza Khan, a renowned artist from Pakistan, as the Institute’s second Distinguished Artist Fellow. In a lecture on campus on April 14—co-hosted by the MFA Boston—Khan presented her powerful work that weaves together themes of land, body, and memory through drawing, sculpture, archival material, and film.

The Mittal Institute is delighted to welcome our newest Distinguished Artist Fellow, Naiza Khan, for a week-long residency on Harvard’s campus this April. A visual artist with a multidisciplinary practice spanning drawing, sculpture, archival material, and film, Khan explores themes of land, body, and memory.Her work engages deeply with museum collections and the circulation of objects linked to migration across the Indian Ocean, offering a critical lens on contemporary issues.

Masuma Halai Khwaja joins the Mittal Institute this spring as a Visiting Artist Fellow. A visual artist, she explores textiles as a medium to weave together personal memory, diverse histories, and cultural intersections—creating narratives that transcend their origins. Working with fabrics sourced from local flea markets, she integrates embroidery to symbolize the fragmentation of traditions in the face of globalization.

The Mittal Institute is delighted to welcome Abir Abdullah to our cohort of Visiting Artist Fellows this spring. A Bangladeshi photographer and educator, Abir is renowned for his powerful visual storytelling on climate change and human resilience.

Parul Gupta, a visual artist from India, joins the Mittal Institute’s Visiting Artist Fellows program. Her work explores movement in architectural spaces as a catalyst for perceptual experiences, using parallax, geometry, and light to shape spatial interactions.

This winter, the traveling exhibition, “The Architectures of Transition - Emerging Practices in South Asia” began its journey across South Asia. It displays the works of 41 emergent architecture practices in South Asia that have engaged in the making of architecture, landscape, and infrastructure in the public realm.

The Mittal Institute is excited to announce the release of the 2023–24 Year in Review and 2023–24 Arts Program reports. Like every year, the comprehensive Year in Review Report includes updates on all major faculty-led programs, lists awards and fellowships, highlights the work of students, student organizations, and scholars, and summarizes events and other achievements. The Arts Program Report highlights the incredible impact and accomplishments of the Mittal Institute's various arts initiatives, which include fellowships, exhibitions, and events. Both reports offer valuable insights into the institute's mission of connecting Harvard with South Asia. 

In mid-October, distinguished Indian classical musician Bahauddin Dagar was in residence at the Mittal Institute. The renowned rudra veena player, who is carrying the Dhrupad tradition forward, spent a week engaging with the Harvard community and sharing his rare art form and musical talents. The culmination of the week-long residency was a concert attended by over 170 attendees. Check out the concert recording and photos here.

The Mittal Institute is excited to announce that Naiza Khan, a highly acclaimed visual artist from Pakistan, will be in residence on the Harvard campus in April 2025 as the institute’s second Distinguished Artist Fellow. The Distinguished Artist Fellowship at the Mittal Institute supports the artistic and research endeavors of senior artists from South Asia. A selection committee nominates a fellow in recognition of the artist’s contribution to important issues related to South Asia.

The Mittal Institute is pleased to welcome Distinguished Artist in Residence Ustad Bahauddin Dagar, a renowned rudra veena player. Ahead of his visit, we spoke with Dagar about how to balance tradition and artistic freedom, the peculiarities of the rudra veena, and what attendees can expect from his performance on Oct. 17, which will be part of ArtsThursdays, a university-wide initiative supported by Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA).