House of Experts Ep 30: Vibha Kagzi in conversation with Saloni Doshi, Art Collector and Patron, Space 118

House of Experts is a show that ReachIvy kick-started to help those who are unclear about their career choices. We hope through these sessions with some very successful people, we can shed light on a new career path every week. House of Experts plans to make a collection of interactive and informative sessions with experts from various domains.
Vibha Kagzi, the host, is the Founder and CEO of ReachIvy.com, a premium study abroad and career consultancy organization. Vibha, a Harvard alumna, is a successful entrepreneur and believes in helping others chalk out their future careers.

In episode 30 of House of Experts, we were fortunate to host, Saloni Doshi, an art patron and collector of contemporary, tribal, abroginial art from India and the subcontinent. Saloni also wrote for the Arts and Culture pages of TOI. In 2016, Saloni was awarded the prestigious ArtThinkSouthAsia (ATSA) Fellowship sponsored by Khoj, British Council and the Goethe Institute. She has moderated several discussions on art residencies and art collecting and is currently writing a book – ‘Mapping Residencies in India’. She is also the chairperson of the London School of Economics Alumni in Bombay.

Some excerpts from the interview:

1. What was your childhood like?
You know my mother insisted that we were raised with all the classical values, I had to learn ‘bharatnatyam’ – a classical dance, to play the Piano, we had to learn Hindustani classical vocals and because my mother came from Kolkata, I grew up with a very strong influence of Bengal school, in terms of going to museums, going to galleries. My uncle is a collector of the Bengal school and I was his favorite from a very young age so I think it so happened that I was exposed to it from a young age. But I think being exposed to the classical forms is something my mother was very particular about, including religious trainings, I mean we are Jains, so we had a teacher not just teaching us our Jain prayer but also what they mean so we don’t just say it as is but we understand what we are saying, what we are praying. So for many years we had a teacher who would teach us what Jainism meant so I think I had religious training as well as training in the Classical Arts from a very young age, Off course then we used to crib about it and hate it, now I realize where it comes from.

2. When did Art happen, what was the turning point?
You know, I think art was always in my life, I mean we were also exposed to a lot of Art and Craft, so I went to oil painting classes in Kolkata, I also used to do a lot of sketching and in crafts, I mean my mother introduced us to everything, we had to do rangolis everyday, I remember I used to then make them out of colored pencil shaving or dye rice or aata and I once in school made one out of screws, nails but different kinds, think ones, thin ones, so it was a very mechanical rangoli. So I would say it was always there but having said that coming from a business family I was, I don’t know why but I was never encouraged or maybe because I was very bright academically, I sort of automatically took up commerce and then never pursued fine arts as a subject and that is one of my regrets.

3. What are the careers one can think of when they want to explore art because in your individual capacity you have been a collector, a curator, a patron, you’ve run a residency, you have worn many hats, what are some of the hats that you’ve haven’t explored that someone could potentially think of as a career in the arts?
I was telling you before, one doesn’t grow up thinking they will be a cricketer. You would be considered lunatic if you thought of that specially if you came from a background where your parents were professionals or your parents were from a business family, you can’t just wake up and say you want to paint. So don’t think of art in a traditional way that oh I have to either be a painter or be a seller or you have to be an auction house, you do not have to be anything, there are many things in between which are curating , which is writing for the arts which is starting art publishing, which is you know options which people can look at beyond these traditional options. There is so much more, today you can be an art influencer, which is just posting on Instagram, collating data and putting it up. So I think there is a lot you can do, making art is one of them but you need to make an identity within the art world or rather any world. So I would say, you can look at other professions, maybe you can look at sourcing art, maybe you could look at helping in a museum as a museologist, you can work as a program manager, there are many things. There are many administrative jobs in the arts as well so I feel like you can do like conservation where you treat paintings that are damaged. Conservationists are very important and an integral part of the art world. So you can do many things, like I said, it is a passion run business so you have to know this, if you like it from day one then you start exploring other avenues as to what you can do within it.

We are extremely grateful to Saloni Doshi for sharing her journey and valuable learning’s with us.

Missed out on the previous house of expert episodes? You can watch them here

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