Diana Campbell Betancourt

Diana Campbell Betancourt (born March 4, 1984) is an American Curator working in Bangladesh and Philippines. Currently she is the Artistic Director of Dhaka based Samdani Art Foundation and Chief Curator of the Dhaka Art Summit. Formerly based in Mumbai for six years, she facilitated inter-regional South Asia dialog through her exhibitions and public programmes.

Betancourt has a keen interest in inter-Asia dialogs which can be seen through her exhibitions and public programmes. She chairs the board of the Mumbai Art Room, has been a research fellow at the Henry Moore Institute, the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum and the FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, and has collaborated with sculpture parks including Yorkshire Sculpture Park, de Cordova, and Wanas Konst on commissions of Indian sculpture. She has consulted the New Museum and MCA Chicago and many other leading institutions on their inclusion of South Asia in their exhibitions programs and has presented her research as part of MoMA’s C-MAP initiative. She is a nominee for the 2016 Independent Curators International Independent Vision Curatorial Award and a part of MoMA’s 2016 International Curatorial Institute, and giving the 2016 Key Note Lecture for Artspace Sydney’s International Visiting Curators programme.

Dhaka Art Summit

Over the past four years Diana Campbell Betancourt has developed the Dhaka Art Summit to be the world’s leading research and exhibitions platform for art from South Asia, and developed a new philanthropic platform to shift the discourse away from an Indo-centric one by bringing together artists, architects, curators, and writers from across South Asia and through a largely commission based model where new work and exhibitions are born in Bangladesh. She has curated numerous solo projects with artists such as Haroon Mirza, Simryn Gill, Tino Sehgal, Lynda Benglis, Shilpa Gupta, Shahzia Sikander, Naeem Mohaiemen, Runa Islam, Shumon Ahmed, Pawel Althamer, Asim Waqif, and Raqs Media Collective]] as well as group exhibitions such as Rewind (with Amara Antilla, Sabih Ahmed, and Beth Citron))and Mining Warm Data, and initiated a free, alternative education program called Samdani Seminars which bridges the gaps in curriculum between the various art schools in Dhaka with international guest faculty.

In addition to her exhibitions making practice, Betancourt also is responsible for developing the Samdani Art Foundation collection, which has been recognized by ArtReview, Artnet News, Artnet News, and Artnews as one of the leading collections in the world. The collection, as well as temporary exhibitions related to it, will be visible in the foundation’s art centre that will open in Sylhet, Bangladesh at the end of 2018.

Diana Campbell Betancourt studied at Princeton University, NJ, USA. Her study concentration included Chinese Language and Culture.