Shalini Ganendra
Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra is a cultural entrepreneur and scholar, known for founding the pioneering cultural marquee, "Gallery Weekend Kuala Lumpur" and "Shalini Ganendra Advisory". She has has developed multi- and inter-disciplinary programming to further cultural connection for over two decades. Projects included the six year "Vision Culture Lectures". thereafter documented by UNESCO Observatory through publication of essays as the Arts in Asia Issue 2016. Her academic, advisory and curatorial focuses are inter-disciplinary, with focus on the relationships between aesthetic development, historiographies and contemporary geo/political influences; she has published on the subject of contemporary and modern  art practices of Sri Lanka and Malaysia and on cultural markets. She was the first expert on Sri Lankan art to be appointed to the Tate Gallery (UK) Acquisitions Committee (SAAC) and has served on numerous judging and award panels including for the Sacker Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. She introduced contemporary Sri Lankan and Malaysian artists during New York's Asia Week 2006 -2008 and 2015 in a series of exhibitions titled "Serendipity" and "My Country". She has published widely on a variety of inter-disciplinary topics, including on Asian art, craft and identity. She commissioned one of the early green  buildings in Malaysia, the Gallery Residence (2011), (also known as the Ganendra Art House). Education. She attended the National Cathedral School, Washington D.C. and Phillips Exeter Academy, where she was made a Life Harkness Fellow. A fourth generation Cantabrigian, she read law at Trinity Hall, Cambridge University where she was featured as one of the THWomen40 Profiles.