Beyond the Exhibition: The Power and Possibility of Cultural Events

Arwa Al Ali is a Senior Advisor for the Ministry of Culture and The Diriyah Biennale Foundation (DBF) where she has been instrumental in delivering three international Biennales and advising on strategy, partnerships and international affairs. She is also the Founder and CEO of Creative Pathways, an advisory firm that specializes in policy, strategy and content for cultural, creative and tourism industries.
Her background combines over 20 +years of expertise in culture, public policy, and institutional development establishing flagship institutions in the Middle East and Africa for governments, non-profits and start-ups.. Her global work experience includes, establishing a national film commission, founding a sharing economy technology start-up, developing international strategic partnerships for UNICEF, and launching a leadership university in conjunction with Harvard University. Al Ali has also served on international advisory boards such as the Barakat Trust,
Synergos Philanthropy Circle and TNF foundation. Al Ali is a graduate of Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
and holds a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Syima Aslam is the CEO & Artistic Director of Bradford Literature Festival (BLF). She established BLF in 2014, which now welcomes more than 150,000 visitors from 30 countries annually to Bradford and is celebrated as Europe’s most diverse literature festival. Aslam was born in Pakistan and grew up in Yorkshire. She graduated from Brunel University of London with a degree in Economics and Business Finance. She was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bradford. In 2022, she became a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in recognition of her achievements to date for services to literature. In 2024 and 2025 she was recognised as one of The 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World.

Sabih Ahmed is a curator, culture theorist, and educator living in the UAE. His work focuses on modern and contemporary art mapped through diverse itineraries and inter-disciplinary formations. He is the Co-Artistic Director of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2026 with Nora Razian. Ahmed serves as a Projects Advisor at Ishara Art Foundation in Dubai where he was formerly the Director from 2020 to 2025, and responsible for strategic expansion of the organisation. He co-authored the book Mass Traffic with Lantian Xie in 2023.

Bose Krishnamachari is an artist, independent curator, scenographer, and cultural activist. He is the co-founder and ideator of the Kochi Biennale Foundation and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, one of the most significant contemporary art events in Asia. A graduate of Sir J.J. School of Art, where he taught in 1992, he obtained a Master’s in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London. His interdisciplinary practice spans painting, installation, design, and institution building. Krishnamachari has curated major national and international exhibitions, including the inaugural Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2012), the Indian Pavilion at ARCO Madrid (2009), and the Yinchuan Biennale (MoCA), China (2016). He is the Artistic Director of Gallery DTALE ARCHIST, and founder of Gallery BMB. An ongoing educational empowerment and travel project of his is ‘LaVA’ (Laboratory of Visual Art). His accolades include the Asia Society’s Game Changer Award, the Charles Wallace Award, and Kerala Lalithakala Akademi’s ‘Lifetime Fellow’. Listed in artReview’s Power 100, he lives and works between Mumbai, Bangalore, and Kochi.