Anant National University Hosts Editor-in-Chief of ARTIndia, Reema Desai Gehi, for an Insightful Session on Contemporary Art and Media

Anant National University hosted Reema Desai Gehi, the Editor-in-Chief of ARTIndia and the author of the critically acclaimed book, ‘The Catalyst: Rudolf von Leyden and India’s Artistic Awakening‘ (2024), for an engaging talk session with Anant faculty and students on 3 October 2025. As part of Anant’s commitment to bring distinguished professionals and thought leaders to campus, the Centre for Visual Arts organised this session to broaden students’ perspectives, strengthen their preparedness to address global challenges and inspire them to design innovative and sustainable solutions for the future.

Anant National University Hosts Editor-in-Chief of ARTIndia, Reema Desai Gehi, for an Insightful Session on Contemporary Art and Media

During the sessions, Reema traced the 30-year-old journey and evolution of ARTIndia, one of India’s longest-running contemporary art magazines, and shared useful insights about keeping a publication relevant and flourishing in the digital age.

Reflecting on the changing media landscape, Reema shared, “It is important to keep the content fresh and accessible to all in the social media age, while maintaining editorial integrity. At the same time, it is equally important to choose the content mindfully, especially in today’s age of information overload.”

Commenting on the session, Prof Sharmila Sagara, Professor, Centre for Visual Arts, reflected on the session, saying, “Reema’s session was really insightful as she emphasised the importance of rigorous research to deepen the understanding of contemporary art, making media practices more relevant and enriching classroom learning.”

The evening concluded with an interactive Q&A session with students and faculty.

About Anant National University
Anant National University, India’s premier design university, is dedicated to training students to devise solutions for global problems. Anant follows the DesignX pedagogy, where ‘X’ is the symbol drawn from mathematics, representing enhancement. This new learning approach multiplies traditional design pedagogy with liberal arts disciplines, emerging technologies and knowledge drawn from hands-on community experiences to help understand our world better and to devise impactful solutions.

Our multidisciplinary undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes in design, architecture, climate action and visual arts harness knowledge from various disciplines and traditional practices to integrate it with cutting-edge technology to address diverse challenges. We train our designers to become solutionaries – revolutionary thinkers with a solution-oriented mindset.

Anant National University has been recognised as the Centre of Excellence by the Government of Gujarat, highlighting our efforts to provide our students with world-class education, innovative pedagogy, high employability and enhanced entrepreneurial and research opportunities. Anant has also received the prestigious ‘5-Star Rating’ in the category of Architecture and a ‘4-Star Rating’ in the University category in the Gujarat State Institutional Rating Framework (GSIRF) 2023-24. These recognitions reinforce our commitment to creating a world-class institution of great eminence and excellence.