People — Sri Aurobindo Kala Sangam

People

Sri Aurobindo Kala Sangam is a ‘Confluence of Creativity’ – a coming together of the most accomplished creative talents from India to work to bring about a new understanding of Indian Aesthetics for new needs of Creative Expression for the Digital Media; and a resurgence of Indian Art & Design from the vast spectrum of emerging possibilities

SAKS is being guided by an eminent Board of Advisors, composed of the most respected creative minds in India combining the ancient wisdom of traditional shastras with contemporary expressions of creativity across the Visual and Performing arts — a Padma Vibhushan Shilpi, an Educator in the wisdom of the Shilpa-shastras; a celebrated Filmmaker, a National Award-winning Music Director, a respected scholar of Tantric Arts, and a Visionary Educator. Their support is both a mark of their faith in the SAKS agenda and the team which is working to achieve it.

Padma Vibhushan Shri Sudarshan Sahoo↗

Eminent Shilpi working in the classical Orissa Sculpture tradition, with studios in Bhubaneswar and Puri.

Sthapati K. P. Umapathy Acharya

Principal, TVS Shilpa Vidya Gurukulam, Kumbhakonam. Hereditary Architect & Sculptor.

Bharatbala Ganapathy↗

Award-winning filmmaker known for landmark works at the intersection of Indian culture, spirituality, and contemporary visual media.

M Jayachandran↗

Celebrated music director and composer. National Award winner. Advisor on music, performance, and Indian musical traditions.

Dr Madhu Khanna↗

Tantra Scholar and author on Tantra, Yantra, and Indian aesthetic philosophy. One of the world's foremost authorities on Tantric art.

Hari Sankaran

Institution builder, Visionary and Education Technology leadership. Founder of ‘Learnet’ and ‘Schoolnet’.

The founding partners of SAKS are all highly accomplished professionals in Art, Media and Design; with proven record of leadership and original creativity. All believe in the urgent need for Indian design community to come together to work to bring about a resurgence of Indian creativity, based on India’s Spiritual, Philosophical, and Aesthetics traditions.

They have committed to work towards fully supporting the effort and the vision of Prof Kirti Trivedi, to begin an active movement to institutionalize this effort; inspired by the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and the Design Methodology of Prof Kohei Sugiura.

Prof Kirti Trivedi

Founding Director, SAKS

Visiting Distinguished Professor at IIT Indore, Kirti Trivedi is a former Professor from the Industrial Design Centre, IIT, Bombay. The initiator and the founder of India's first Master of Design Programme in Visual Communication at IDC; in 1981, he worked as a UNESCO Fellow in Japan, under the guidance of Prof. Kohei Sugiura, and was introduced by him to the intellectual depth and the richness of Asian Design.

Besides teaching and design research, he is active as a design consultant in the areas of Graphic Design, Book Design, Exhibition and Museum Design, Environmental Graphics, Signage, and Product Design: with numerous publications and awards both nationally and internationally. In 2011, he was invited by the School of Art, Design and Media at NTU, Singapore to help set up a Centre for Asian Design, and introduce new programmes in Asian Design, Projection Arts and Islamic Design.

He is also engaged in developing a new model for design education, appropriate for the digital age, with the changed context of AI tools and a new student profile.

Muktha Hiremath↗

Executive Director, SAKS

Communication Designer with extensive experience in Publication Design, UX Design (at SAP), and Design History.

Sneha M L↗

Co-founder, Dig Design Studio

Works with Startups across UI/UX & Product strategy. Contemporary artist exploring Indian philosophy through abstract, geometric work.

Sindhu Kulkarni↗

Co-founder & Principal, Tacit Design

Also co-founded Tacitgames, designing puzzles & board games rooted in Indian culture & history.

Radhika Tipnis

Publication Designer with deep expertise in Editorial, Book design and Digital Illustration. Professor of Practice, School of Innovation, IIT Indore.

S K Mohanty↗

Research Director, Indic Scripts Research Centre, SAKS.

Pioneered and spear-headed Indian script font design program at C-DAC, Pune; India's most respected font designer with over 35 years in digital font design and Indic script development. Renowned Calligrapher.

Harshvardhan Kadam↗

Environmental Artist and Muralist working at the intersection of Mythology, Tantric Art, and Public Space. Highly accomplished digital illustrator and visualizer.

Hanu Trivedi

Media and Event Planning professional.

Financial Planning and Management.

Board of Advisors

Founding Team