Nico Daswani

A graduate of the University of Westminster-London, Nico was the director of programs at the 2005 World Festival of Sacred Music-LA. His work led him to ask what can be learned from the cultural shifts created by the globalization of media and communication, and how we can anticipate the ways people relate to each other artistically and culturally--questions he explored at Gallatin.

Concentrating on global studies, communications, business, and cross-cultural exchange through the arts, Nico’s thesis at Gallatin was based on his experience at the Cudamani Summer Institute in Bali, where the local community of artists from the Cudamani ensemble held intensive music and dance workshops. While living and performing with the other participants, Nico conducted an ethnography of the program. He proposed an alternative model for thinking about heritage in the context of tourism and developed the concept of “intercultural heritage,” in which tourism helps to sustain the local community. His thesis was titled "The Cudamani Summer Institute in Bali: Artistic Transmission, Collaboration and the Making of Intercultural Heritage."

Nico co-founded the arts organization Create Culture, which puts together artistic gatherings on a local level. During the summer of 2011, Creative Culture organized “Creative Walks” with various performers in New York City, and “Faces of New York,” a series of video interviews with artists and cultural workers. Until 2013, he served as the program director of the Asian American Arts Alliance. He is now manager of arts and culture at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland.