~ From chartered accountancy to 25 years of leadership in the arts domain, Das shared lessons on creativity, courage and community.
~ Das insisted that the arts are sustained not by resources alone, but by the people who choose to imagine differently.
Balancing her passion for the arts and pursuing a rather staid career in accountancy, Ruchira Das, a leading arts professional in the country, said that the mere act of volunteering at cultural events was something she found “far more joyful than numbers and audits” and proved to be a starting point for her for a career in the arts.
Recounting a memorable anecdote during her MOG Sunday talk at the Museum of Goa, Pilerne, titled, ‘Everything You Can Imagine: A 25-Year Journey in the Arts’, Das said that she even had to arrange for a barber for famous shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan before a performance at the last minute.
“Every experience was a lesson in problem-solving, empathy and humour,” Das said in her talk, while describing the early years of producing concerts for maestros such as world-renowned sitar player Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Bismillah Khan, and the unpredictability that came with it, from managing last-minute travel crises to finding a barber for Ustadji before a show.
But she also said that volunteering for such events helped her start a career in the domain of the arts. “I realised I had stumbled into something far more joyful than numbers and audits,” she said.
Das, who traced her 25-year journey through India’s cultural landscape from her beginnings as a chartered accountant to founding and leading ThinkArts, and holding key roles at ARThink South Asia, Arthshila, and British Council India, also credited the voluntary cultural movement SPIC MACAY in Kolkata, whose mission is ‘to have every child experience the inspiration and mysticism embodied in Indian and world heritage’ for reshaping her career and outlook.
Das spoke about creating the memorable ThinkArts event in 2013 to bring arts experiences to children, inspired by her daughters’ engagement with the festivals she managed. “If we could take our children to the arts, why not bring the arts to all the children?” she reflected. ThinkArts went on to collaborate internationally and design arts-based education models across India.
Reflecting on her leadership across arts organisations, Das discussed the balance between creative vision and administrative rigour. “The arts world often looks glamorous from the outside,” she said, “but behind every project are people navigating limited resources, endless coordination and a shared love for what they do.” She added that while empathy and communication are as crucial to the arts as funding or infrastructure, the real challenge lies in sustaining human connection across creative ecosystems.
Das reminded audiences that the strength of the arts lies not in funding or infrastructure alone but in people and their collective imagination. The session closed with a reflection on how creativity, collaboration, and community continue to define India’s cultural future and how sustaining imagination remains both an artistic and civic responsibility.
