The Samdanis’ Dhaka Art Summit (“a pop-up museum, a festival… a huge public platform,” as Nadia described it in a talk at Art Basel Hong Kong last year) always intended to bring the world to Bangladesh. “When we started… the Bangladeshi artworld was against us. There was an established market and the contemporary artists we were working with weren’t part of that,” industrialist Rajeeb told the same audience. Given the considerable number of local and international institutions now affiliating themselves with the Samdanis’ initiative, as well as visitor numbers reaching almost half a million for the sixth edition, in 2023, there is clearly more enthusiasm at this stage. The biennial summit may be skipping a year (the seventh edition will open in 2026), but such momentum has led the couple to envision Srihatta, the 40-hectare art centre and sculpture park they are building in Sylhet, scheduled to open in 2025. There are also various advisory and museum patrons’ committees to keep them busy, including Tate, Alserkal Avenue and Asia Society.

*Last Year 96 (with Diana Campbell)