What if museums were more than places to look, but places to feel, question, and heal?
In this episode, I sit down with Siddhartha Shah, John Wieland 1958 Director of the Mead Art Museum, for a rich and illuminating conversation about the evolving role of museums in our society.
Before coming to Amherst, Siddhartha served as Curator of South Asian Art and Director of Education and Civic Engagement at the Peabody Essex Museum, where he led groundbreaking initiatives, making PEM the first sensory-inclusive art museum in the region, and developing bilingual and accessibility programs that significantly expanded who felt welcome in museum spaces. His work there redefined what it means for cultural institutions to serve their communities with empathy, care, and inclusion.
At the Mead Art Museum on the campus of Amherst College, Siddhartha continues to lead with vision and heart, transforming the museum into a dynamic, living classroom, one where art becomes a catalyst for cross-cultural understanding, emotional resonance, and meaningful dialogue. With advanced degrees in art history, psychology, and archaeology, and years spent curating contemporary Hindu and Buddhist art, his approach reflects a rare integration of intellect, spirit, and soul-centered leadership.
Together, we explore art as a form of communion, the importance of critical visual thinking in an image-saturated world, and how museums can hold complex histories while fostering compassion, curiosity, and connection across difference.
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