S5E2: Holding emotional space... Natasha Sharma, co-Curator, Govandi Arts Festival
Guest
Natasha Sharma
In conversation with
Stephanie Fortunato
Our host, Stephanie Fortunato, speaks with Natasha Sharma, co-Curator of the Govandi Arts Festival, about how engagement with the arts and creative interventions can help displaced or overlooked communities reclaim space, agency, and narratives of belonging.
Date of Recording
15 January 2025
Date of Publication
13 February 2025
[00:00:00]
Natasha Sharma: Holding emotional space is also a huge part of city building. It's not just the physical space that we create. It's where in the city are there pockets where you just can come and feel like you're just being heard, seen, or just feel like you're being together.
[00:00:17]
THEME MUSIC
[00:00:22]
Stephanie Fortunato: Hello and welcome to The Three Bells. This podcast is one of a series brought to you by AEA Consulting for the Global Cultural Districts Network, in which we explore what's happening around the world on those busy and sometimes congested intersections of cultural and urban life. I'm your host, Stephanie Fortunato, Director of Special Projects for GCDN.
I've dedicated my career to strengthening arts, culture, and community development in cities. In Providence, I led initiatives that engaged artists in transforming public spaces throughout the city. A highlight of this work was producing an annual arts festival that reimagined downtown for four days of creativity and connection.
This experience deepens my understanding of how festivals empower communities to catalyse social change. Today, I'm thrilled to welcome Natasha Sharma, an innovative artist-researcher-organiser from Mumbai, India, co-founder of Govandi Arts Festival, and Head of Art and Design at Community Design Agency.
Natasha's work blends artistic expression with social research, creating impactful community-led interventions that reclaim public spaces and empower marginalised voices. Her projects demonstrate the role of arts and culture as a crucial scaffolding to urban development. Through artistic community engagements, she creates interventions of pause and play, activation and restoration, belonging and agency between people and place that she finds to be rather lost in the current ways of city making.
Let's dive into conversation with Natasha for insights on the transformative power of art in unexpected urban contexts. Hello, Natasha!
[00:02:00]
Natasha Sharma: Hi, Stephanie. It's good to be here.
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About our Guest
Natasha Sharma is co-Curator of the Govandi Arts Festival and Head of Art and Design at the Community Design Agency, where she uses arts and design to empower marginalized communities. Her work transforms public spaces through creative interventions that foster agency, belonging, and social change. By integrating artistic expression with community engagement, she helps reclaim narratives and reimagine urban environments. +
