Sumona Chakravarty, an artist and designer, is the Founder and Director of Hamdasti, a platform for collaborations between artists, designers, communities, and government departments, which she developed through being selected as a finalist for the Dean’s Cultural Entrepreneurship Challenge at Harvard University. Chakravarty explores the role of participatory art and design practices in creating spaces for civic engagement and reactivating the public domain. Working across diverse fields such as art education, cultural development, communication design and theatre, she tries to find a balance between incremental shifts catalysed by art, and systemic changes created through social work. Chakravarty holds a Bachelor’s degree in Art and Design from Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bengaluru and a Master’s degree focussed on art and design for civic engagement from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.