The story
Dhaka Art Summit in Dhaka
The Dhaka Art Summit is a free, non-selling contemporary art event held every two years at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, pairing Bangladeshi artists with international curators and institutions across exhibitions, talks and performances. It functions more like a major regional biennial than a commercial art fair, best explored over multiple visits rather than a single afternoon.
Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani started this summit in 2012 with a deliberately non-commercial premise: nothing on the walls is for sale, and admission has stayed free, which sets it apart from the art-fair model most cities use to draw an international art crowd.