Episode 49 features András Szántó, a cultural strategist with a background in sociology who advises museums, foundations, universities and corporations, the world over. Offering a range of planning and project development guidance, he has an eye on global trends and an awareness of current and future challenges facing the art sector.

He addresses some of these topics in his articles, books and through the initiatives he has established including the Global Museum Leaders Colloquium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A seasoned speaker, at the Venice Biennale he hosted a panel discussion on reimagining museums for the twenty-first century. I spoke to András about this event and the health research he thinks will be shaping institutions in the years to come.

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Episode 48 speaks with Don Handa, a curator, writer and podcaster based in Nairobi who specialises in experimental and research-based practices in and from Eastern Africa. As a curator at the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute, he leads exhibition, public and educational programmes that focus on preserving and promoting East African art.

NCAI was founded in 2020 by artist Michael Armitage and has steadily been building a collection and archive of East African art history. Their shows have contextualised the area’s art heritage and in doing so, made the institute a place of conversation and community. I spoke to Don about NCAI’s inclusion in the Venice Biennale and their working methods.

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This special edition of Art Worlds comes to you from Venice during the 61st Biennale Arte 2026. Amin Jaffer is a curator and art historian focused on South Asia and the cultural intersections between Europe and Asia. His research has seen him mount an exhibition exploring the complex furniture trade in colonial India at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Lately he has been an artistic director for the second Islamic Arts Biennale and currently directs The Al Thani Collection, which stretches across cultures from the ancient world to today.

Amin's appreciation for historic art traditions has informed his curation of the India pavilion at Venice this year. Five artists (Alwar Balasubramanium, Ranjani Shettar, Sumakshi Singh, Skarma Sonam Tashi and Asim Waqif) each using methods and materials that have been deployed in India over great lengths of time, transform the pavilion into a haptically rich environment that considers the notion of home. Amin spoke to me from Venice, in the final run up to the pavilion’s opening.

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