Samdani Art Foundation Launches Permanent Srihatta Art Center in Rural Bangladesh

The Samdani Art Foundation will establish its first permanent public venue in Sylhet, a rural region of Northern Bangladesh approximately 150 miles from Dhaka. Scheduled to open in late 2018, the Srihatta – Samdani Art Centre and Sculpture Park will feature a 930-square-meter artist residency complex and a 465-square-meter gallery designed by architect Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury and his firm Urbana. The 100-acre sculpture park will include several artist commissions, with free public access. Artistic director Diana Campbell Betancourt will lead programming focused on South Asian art, aiming to bridge rural and urban, local and international contexts. The foundation, founded by Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani and known for organizing the Dhaka Art Summit, also plans writing and curatorial residencies to train new arts professionals in Bangladesh.