The End of Art and the Promise of Beauty was an international seminar held at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi on February 25-27, 2012, organized by Sonia Sikka and Shakti Maira with the assistance of Ms. Reetu Jaiswal.  The seminar brought together academics, artists, curators and other individuals involved with art in creative ways to talk about the contemporary situation and future of art.  The conversation was especially focused on the place of beauty, within art and within our lives generally. On this website, you will find information about the seminar, as well as a video gallery featuring clips from each of the presentations.  A related volume of essays has been published entitled Artistic Visions and the Promise of Beauty, ed. Kathleen Higgins, Shakti Maira & Sonia Sikka (Routledge, 2016).  Readers of the volume will find a list of relevant weblinks under "Image Links for Volume" on this website.

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Select video shorts are also available on youtube:

Laila Tyabji on the art/craft divide
http://youtu.be/3bawD9AdvLo

Partha Mitter:  Beauty, race and western representations of non-western peoples
http://youtu.be/rBkkzyCWl54

Debating the value of craft
http://youtu.be/wAIgUTqbxpw

Death and the aesthetics of mourning
http://youtu.be/ceOdif0Ng2c

Debating the sari:  cultural treasure or patriarchal tool?
http://youtu.be/CcgU8HwrcIg

Suresh Jayaram on Bangalore as a garden city
http://youtu.be/ne9VEeFJtjA

Elizabeth Rogers on curating non-Western art
http://youtu.be/RfL5mp48Gqo

Ruth Lorand on why there is no end of art
http://youtu.be/06H9GrzzmEo

Shakti Maira on art and beauty
http://youtu.be/Ml7P5-bvrJ8

Anjolie Menon: Beauty and ugliness in contemporary art
http://youtu.be/0mdVT9Oi2IE