“Curating the invisible, listening through layers.”
In Her Own Words: A Conversation with the Curator Behind Arts South.
At the heart of Arts South is a singular curatorial vision — one that bridges continents, cultures, and time. Discreet yet discerning, the co-founder and curator navigates art not as spectacle, but as inquiry. Drawing on a scientific mind and a socially attuned sensibility, she crafts programs that invite us to pause, question, and reimagine. In this interview-style feature, she shares the philosophy, experiences, and quiet revolutions that shape her work.
What sparked the creation of Arts South?
Arts South is a continuation of a journey that began with Leap Initiative Philanthropies. From the beginning, I was drawn to the potential of art to reveal, to connect, to question. Over time, I realised that creating a curatorial platform was the most meaningful way to honour those intentions — and to build bridges between voices that too often speak in parallel.
How do you choose the projects you work on?
Intuition. Integrity. Urgency. I’m interested in projects that challenge cultural hierarchies, that dig into the spiritual and political layers of aesthetics, and that bring new narratives to light — especially in post-colonial, Afro-Asian, and diasporic contexts.
What does curation mean to you?
Curation, for me, is a form of listening — and of care. It’s about creating frameworks where complexity is welcome, and where every element — a silence, a symbol, a story — can breathe. It’s not about filling walls or spaces, but about shaping encounters.
How do you approach cross-cultural storytelling?
With humility. With attention. And with a sense of responsibility. Cross-cultural work isn’t about blending everything into harmony; it’s about honoring difference while building understanding. I lean into nuance, contradiction, and translation — not to resolve them, but to hold them with respect.
Many of your programs center around identity and heritage. Why is that important?
Because our identities are constantly being rewritten. Art allows us to participate in that rewriting — to reclaim, to reframe, to resist. And when we do that across cultures, it becomes a shared act of reimagination.
What’s your background, and how does it inform your curatorial approach?
I come from a scientific background — a training that sharpened my eye for systems, for precision, for method. But I also carry a strong sense of social intelligence: the ability to perceive what isn’t said, to adapt across cultural and emotional registers. Together, these forces give me a curatorial approach that is both structured and intuitive — rigorous, but never rigid.This is a frequently asked question?
Why do you keep such a discreet profile?
Because the work speaks. I prefer to build structures that elevate others, rather than step into the spotlight myself. This doesn’t mean invisibility — just intention. It’s about presence without performance.
How do past experiences inform today’s projects?
Past projects are never over. They echo — sometimes as lessons, sometimes as questions that return in new forms. Leap Initiative Philanthropies, for example, taught me the value of slow partnerships, of deep cultural work, and of thinking beyond the art world as we know it.
What kind of impact do you hope to leave through this work?
I hope to make space — for stories that have been marginalised, for questions that resist easy answers, for people who move between worlds. If this work can deepen someone’s sense of connection, or sharpen their critical gaze, or simply offer a moment of recognition — that’s enough.
What’s next for Arts South?
We’re preparing two new publications — one on the Full Circle journey, and another on Vodoun visualities. Both are part of a wider effort to document and deepen the conversations we’ve started. We’re also continuing to work with clients and collaborators who believe in meaningful, slow curating.
“Curation, for me, is a form of listening — and of care.”