Anoushka Bhalla Tapped to Lead Curatorial Endowment Effort for The Immigrant Artist Biennial
In the midst of fundraising, The Immigrant Artist Biennial welcomes a new development officer, Anoushka Bhalla to spearhead an initiative to secure endowments for each of their four curators and its founding artistic director. “These contributions will be vital to sustaining the biennial’s 2026 budget and ensuring the integrity of the program,” states the press release issued by the biennial earlier today. It is an exciting hire as public funding in the cultural sector is scarce, making private funding, which the young biennial will completely rely on, paramount to secure.
The biennial also announced a group of like-minded organizations who will play an active and integral role as connective tissue between TIAB’s audiences and its artistic programming. The new partners, ArteEast, Kinoki, IMPULSE, and Cultbytes, the press release states “are all organizations that are sensitive to the concerns of immigrant artists and are actively working to carve out visibility, educate diverse audiences, and develop new approaches to sustaining and evolving our shared cultural ecosystem.” Anna Mikaela Ekstrand, Director of TIAB commented. “Our partners are not just supporters—they are contributors, facilitators, and co-creators in shaping how audiences will experience the 2026 biennial.”
With great dedication to the city’s immigrant artist community, Bhalla visited eight out of nine exhibitions during the previous biennial, its second edition, Contact Zone in 2023. Speaking fondly about New York’s immigrant artist focused biennial she says: “TIAB occupies a vital space within the contemporary art ecosystem, offering a safe environment for dialogue, solidarity, and cultural exchange when immigrant artists face immense precarity and invisibility,” continuing, on a very positive note: “What excites me most is building long-term sustainability and visibility around this mission.” Some of her energy stems from her will to give back to her own community; hailing from India and maintaining a painting practice in New York she is also an immigrant artist. A talented one at that, she is currently an artist resident at the prestigious ARTworks at the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning.
Based in New York, but with a broad network in the fastest-growing art market, South Asia, Bhalla has created successful strategies and partnerships for media platforms, biennials, and between artists and institutions globally. During her tenure as IMPULSE Magazine’s first Director of Development and Relations, a former member of Baseera Khan’s studio team, and a consultant on several other projects Bhalla has developed a sophisticated understanding of relationship-building across different parts of the art world that she will bring to her new position as development officer.
We sent Bhalla some hard hitting questions to answer over email before she gets in the thick of securing funding, designing collaborative initiatives, and stewarding key relationships for TIAB—all things she has a track record of doing with gusto.
What does it mean to be an immigrant artist in the United States?
I think being an immigrant artist gives you a heightened awareness of systems, access, and cultural translation. You’re constantly navigating between different social, cultural, and institutional contexts, which inevitably shapes both your work and your understanding of community. At the same time, New York has such a dense concentration of artists and cultural dialogue that it can be incredibly energizing. I’ve met people here from all over the world who are building meaningful practices and support systems despite difficult conditions, and that resilience has been very inspiring to me.
What are you looking forward to doing as the Development Officer at TIAB?
This year’s emphasis on performance, workshops, and public conversation feels incredibly urgent and responsive to the current social climate. I look forward to expanding the biennial’s reach by securing the partnerships, sponsorships, and institutional relationships needed to amplify these artists’ voices and create deeper community engagement
You followed us closely during the previous biennial in 2023. What made an impression on you?
What stood out to me was the ambition and seriousness of the initiative. It didn’t feel symbolic or tokenistic, and it felt genuinely embedded within the city and within ongoing conversations around migration, identity, labor, and cultural belonging. I was also struck by the diversity of artists and venues involved, and by how the biennial created dialogue across different institutions, artist-run spaces, nonprofits, and different immigrant communities rather than existing in isolation. It felt collaborative, urgent, and genuinely responsive to the realities many immigrant artists are navigating today.
What are some partnership ideas you would like to develop?
I think there is also strong potential to build relationships with companies and organizations looking to support cultural initiatives in meaningful ways, particularly around immigration and community-building. Ideally, the goal is to create partnerships that feel long-term and collaborative rather than purely transactional
How do you approach balancing a studio practice and other work?
I’ve increasingly come to see them as interconnected rather than opposing forces. Working within arts organizations has expanded my understanding of the larger ecosystem that artists operate within, including funding structures, institutions, audiences, and community-building. Of course balancing both can be difficult, especially in a city like New York, but I think many artists today are navigating hybrid practices and professional roles simultaneously. For me, staying engaged with the broader arts ecosystem has actually deepened my understanding of my own practice.
Cultbytes is a partner of The Immigrant Artist Biennial 2026 which will run October-November, 2026. Sign up for their newsletter or follow @theimmigrantartistbiennial.
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