Q&A: Priya Krishnamoorthy (MET’19)
Priya Krishnamoorthy (MET’19)Founder, 200 Million Artisans (Mumbai, India)
MS, Arts Administration
Why did you choose MET for your graduate studies? What set MET apart from other programs you were considering?
I had already worked as an arts manager in India but was itching to gain global perspectives and learn from best practices across borders. I started exploring programs in arts administration that offered an overview of the landscape. I was keen on learning new skills that I could apply back in India. So I wanted a program that offered practical subjects like finance, fundraising and entrepreneurship, and that ideally was designed for professionals and arts practitioners. Given my interest in entrepreneurship, I also wanted to tap into the innovation ecosystem in the United States, so it had to be in a city that offered that culture. The MS in Arts Administration at MET checked all the boxes.
Were you able to use faculty as a resource? Is there a particular faculty member who enhanced your experience at MET?
All the faculty members at the Arts Administration program were wonderful and incredibly knowledgeable. Given my particular interest in entrepreneurship, I also tapped into faculty and student resources at the BUild Lab, which added a lot of value to my learning. Other faculty across BU also offered support to many of my projects and ideas—Jen Guillemin, Wendy Swart Grossman, Darby Hobbs, Ian Mashiter and Ty Furman. Having said this, our advisor at the MET Arts Administration program, Doug DeNatale, was my go-to faculty member for all things concerning arts management. I attended two of his courses, and he was also my advisor for directed study. I continue to use the insights gained from our many, many discussions. He understood that, as foreign students, many of us needed extra help to navigate the demands of education in the US. Dr. DeNatale’s continued guidance, patience and support helped me make the most of my time in Boston as a Fulbright fellow.
Did earning your degree lead to a different career focus, or broaden the scope of opportunity within your existing line of work? Can you share your perspective on that?
Before joining the program, I did not understand the true value of the arts and their role in the creative economy. It was during my time at MET that I realized that I wanted to bring creativity together with sustainable development. As a student at BU, I found supportive mentors, professors and industry experts who have patiently guided my work and research. Most importantly, they instilled in me the benefit of critical enquiry in creating effective solutions. The skills that I gained at MET can be applied across the board—in the arts, social impact consulting, fundraising and beyond. That is exactly what I am doing right now.
What specific elements of your MET studies were essential to expanding your career opportunities? Consider faculty or student support, quality of instruction, course projects, or other elements of your program that were critical for your success.
Michael Ibrahim’s class, Raising Funds and Grant Writing for Nonprofit Organizations (MET AR 550), opened my eyes to the world of grant writing and fundraising, which is what I eventually decided to focus on. I worked in the partnerships team at MIT Solve, and at the Fuller Craft Museum thereafter, and Michael’s notes have been a godsend!
I wrote my first business plan in Wendy Swart Grossman’s class, Cultural Entrepreneurship (MET AR 789). I still refer to her notes when I have to navigate the challenges of running a young enterprise. My degree helped me see the arts as a holistic pathway to collective well-being. I started looking at community-led projects and creative placemaking because of Doug DeNatale’s class on Arts and the Community. Darby Hobbs’ class on Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development triggered my interest in seeing creativity through the lens of impact investing. Michele Beasley in her Legal Issues in Arts Administration (MET AR 778) course demanded that we think for ourselves and back up our opinions with facts.
My work and research at BU also helped me explore the role of entrepreneurial and inter-disciplinary ecosystems in fostering creative startups. Thanks to support from the BUild Lab and MET, I was able to initiate and lead the first-ever, on-campus event for the prestigious Hult Prize, a global challenge that aims to mobilize student change-makers and entrepreneurs to rethink the future of business and innovation. Ty Furman from BU Arts Initiative and my peers at the Arts Administration program supported my interest in fashion sustainability. Together, we conceptualized and led a three-day event, Green Your Wardrobe weekend, as part of the annual Fashion Revolution Week in April 2018. A few months later, Ty asked me to curate a showcase of artisanal goods from international and immigrant communities as part of the Global Music Festival 2018. My time at MET offered me an exciting opportunity to gain diverse perspectives on strategic, hands-on arts management while being part of Boston’s innovation ecosystem. I have so much to be grateful for.
Your work has explored barriers to pursuing creative careers in South Asia. How would you characterize those barriers, and do you see any progress toward eliminating those barriers?
I suspect barriers to pursuing creative careers exist everywhere. In South Asia, we see and experience it more acutely. These barriers emerge from our perception of creative value. How should we value the arts, crafts, culture and creativity when it is so hard to quantify their impact?
How should we measure the impact of the arts on motor skill development in young children? Or the impact of arts on mental health?
Most of us—society, educators, investors—see the arts and creativity as an indulgence: non-remunerative and non-lucrative. As young people in the Global South we are almost always steered towards careers in medicine, law, engineering, information technology and others—careers that promise less uncertainty, perhaps. Most people who eventually pursue their creative calling lack relevant and supportive ecosystems. They are rarely taught how to become self-sustaining. A creative career is deeply rooted in passion and purpose. Thus most enterprises are not looking for easy exits or hockey stick growth; they want to create meaningful impact. This means mainstream approaches to entrepreneurship will not work for a creative startup or artist-innovator. Education for creativity also operates in a silo; it does not bring business and global issues into conversation with arts-led approaches. In a world that needs more and more collaboration for the greater good, creative communities have to be supported with the right tools and resources to play a more integral role in driving inclusion, equity and well-being.
I do believe there is a global shift in how arts and culture are being perceived, especially post-COVID, when each and every one of us tapped some form of creativity. I am hopeful that the creative and cultural economy will be supported differently. A welcome move is the UN General Assembly’s declaration of 2021 as the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development. This means they understand and acknowledge that the economy of makers and creators and their contributions have to be taken seriously. With the growth of impact investing, there is a renewed interest in supporting arts-based enterprises globally. All this is great for the creative communities but we will need to keep pace with global changes to stay relevant. We definitely need more advocates who can speak a more global language.
You founded 200 Million Artisans in April of last year. How have you navigated starting a new enterprise and supporting artisans through COVID-19? Has the experience of the pandemic revealed any new opportunities for innovation?
To be honest, 200 Million Artisans started out as an Excel spreadsheet. I was in Boston when the pandemic hit India and many craft-led enterprises working with artisan communities reached out for help. It was supposed to be a quiet little blog to share information, but then volunteers from all over the world started joining in. We started out as a COVID response platform featuring fundraisers of verified craft-based organizations in India. Then we moved on to facilitate innovative collaborations to help India’s artisan-producers, enterprises and other players in the sector.
Ten months on, we are evolving into a purpose-led, social enterprise with a goal to reimagine the potential of the handcrafted by catalyzing inclusion and innovation within India’s handmade sector. Moving forward, as an online platform and community, 200 Million Artisans (200M) intends to support people from all walks of life, working with artisan communities to build successful impact businesses to meet the future needs of sustainable production. We do this by bridging gaps in knowledge, resources and partnerships for small businesses and first-time creative entrepreneurs. Our key areas of focus include:
- Innovation, Research & Insights
- Entrepreneurial Education and Resources
- Global-Local Networks and Partnerships
What you see of our work is all thanks to our global volunteer community—brand consultants, designers, project managers, students, researchers, storytellers, impact measurement experts, data experts. 200 Million Artisans is their vision, not mine alone. The experience of building 200 Million Artisans helped us realize that as creative communities we do not value data and mapping. For example, in India official figures say there are 11 million artisans. Unofficial figures claim there are over 200 million livelihoods linked to the artisan sector. That is a huge number to ignore especially because policies, investments, any kind of support needs to be backed by numbers and data. So research and data mapping of these invisible communities and enterprises is a huge opportunity for us.
Secondly, the lack of collaborative ecosystems is a challenge and an opportunity. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 17—Partnerships for the Goals—is one of our pillars. In keeping with that, we have partnered with global, like-minded startups like Queen of Raw and The Spaceship Academy to build networked communities for our enterprises. Why reinvent the wheel when we can just partner with those who are building great solutions? We also realized that for investors and the government to take the artisan economy seriously, they need proof-points and stories of success. Thus, we are building a vetted pipeline of enterprises that are ready and willing to grow.
The opportunity for the MET alumni network is to extend your skills and your expertise to help us scale our impact. We are quite clear that India is only the beginning. But to realize our vision we need sponsors and mentors for our enterprises, we need experts who can help us collect and communicate data effectively, and we want research collaborators who can document creative cultures and their business models. We also need access to other creative communities, artists, designers and arts organizations who are willing to collaborate with enterprises and artisan communities in India. If you are that person, we invite you to become a partner in our work.
Your work resides at the intersection of the arts and culture sector and the innovation and entrepreneurship sector. What can each field learn from the other?
In the post-COVID world, there is very little room for silos. We all recognize that growth cannot take place at any cost. Communities that have been traditionally excluded from the benefits of development have to be brought into conversation with each other. Creativity is increasingly being recognized as the driving force of the 21st century. However, creative people—especially artists, who are known to engage uniquely with ideas and problems—continue to be sidelined because they lack the language, the tools, the frameworks and the resources needed to self-sustain and grow. It is here we need to turn to business and start speaking the language of entrepreneurship, of data, new ways of measuring and communicating impact. There is a lot the two worlds can learn from each other. Given the unpredictability of our collective future, the world of business is willing and ready to partner with creative workers broadly, and arts organizations and artists in particular, to help solve issues that impact their businesses and communities. The world of arts and culture is a repository of knowledge systems, of solutions rooted in empathy, kindness and well-being. We need to share more about what we do so that the world of business can learn from our incredible work on the ground. The two worlds have to meet each other halfway.
Your work and educational experience is marked by a global perspective. Do you feel that the arts and creative sector is on track to embrace this perspective and incorporate it into future progress? How so?
Today business can be a force for good, and the world over ecosystems are attempting to bring more diverse voices into the mix. There are new models like Zebras Unite and global networks and organizations like Catalyst 2030, like Creative Business Cup, Upstart Colab and many others that are serving the unique needs of artists and creative enterprises. The challenge, however, is that we do not have as many collaborative ecosystems in the arts and culture sector as one would ideally want. Education has only started speaking the new language, so it will take us a while to catch up with the rest of the world. There is a renewed focus on mapping the contributions of this sector, which is great. However, we need to communicate our impact more widely in all kinds of forums, not just arts-led forums, and demand a seat at the table. It is no longer cool to say “I am an artist and I live in my little bubble because I am misunderstood.” If the artisan communities in India, who have been historically marginalized, can make the effort to learn and put themselves out there, especially post-COVID, I believe we, from urban areas, owe it to ourselves to acknowledge our privilege and do more.
What do you see as the biggest barriers to improving sustainability practices in the arts and culture sector? What is the biggest opportunity presented by embracing a commitment to sustainability?
I think as artists, arts managers, creative workers, we forget that the skills acquired in art schools can be applied across the board even within non-arts occupations. This is particularly significant during a time when arts organizations across the world are finding it hard to sustain themselves. Even pre-COVID, in the US alone, for every 25,000 new music majors graduating annually, only 200–300 found full-time positions in orchestras. What happens to the rest? Is it possible to train our arts graduates to become entrepreneurs? To create more Airbnb Experiences for more artists? To apply their skills in the world of sustainability—to create, to communicate and bridge silos? Very few arts organizations talk about how they are contributing to the UN Global SDGs. We support Gender Equality, Health and Well-being, Decent Economic Growth, Sustainable Cities and Communities. It’s time we clearly articulate these linkages. Post-COVID, all investment is going to be focused on rebuilding economies, battling the effects of climate change and working to meet the SDGs. The opportunity lies in offering our unique methodologies of storytelling and grassroots innovation to the rest of the world. Responsible investment is emerging in different parts of the world. We need to prepare our artist-innovators and creative enterprises to become part of the global dialogue. This is both a challenge and an opportunity. Education will no doubt have a vital role to play.
What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who is considering applying to this program?
Today, education is changing at an unimaginable pace. So when you apply to big universities, it becomes imperative that you take full advantage of the ecosystem that the university offers. This requires going beyond classroom sessions to truly immerse yourself in the co-curricular and extra-curricular activities not just within the program, but also across the university and beyond. The MS in Arts Administration is a program rooted in everyday practice and offers many opportunities for students to engage diverse aspects of their interests. I would highly recommend taking advantage of this opportunity to try new things, fail and learn from it in a safe environment. That is exactly what I did and it worked for me. (If you feel lost or find yourself in trouble, go to Doug!)
Published April 2025