We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Yukti V. Agarwal. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Yukti V. below.

Yukti V. , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

After graduating from college, I had a full-time offer lined up—a good salary, great benefits, the ability to secure a visa in the US. On paper, it looked like exactly what you’re supposed to want. But I couldn’t shake this feeling that if I said yes, I’d be choosing comfort over growth. I kept asking myself: was I making a decision out of fear?

At the end of the day, I knew I didn’t want a life that felt small or scripted. So I made the harder choice: I turned down the job, let go of the steady paycheck, and decided to build a career as an artist while freelancing full-time.

It wasn’t easy—walking away from security was terrifying but it felt necessary. Around that time, I was reading a book by Luis Camnitzer that really stuck with me. He talks about how art isn’t a luxury—it’s a way we challenge the world, make sense of it, and imagine something better. That reminded me why it mattered to take the risk. Choosing this path taught me that security isn’t always the goal. Sometimes the bigger risk is playing it too safe—and missing out on the life you’re actually meant to build.

And honestly, choosing this path hasn’t just changed my own life. As an artist, you realize that the work you do has ripple effects—you’re not just creating for yourself. You’re giving other people new ways to see, to think, to feel.

Art shifts perspectives. It creates room for imagination where there wasn’t any before. Sometimes it even gives people the language or the hope they didn’t know they were missing. Luis Camnitzer elaborates on this—art isn’t just about making beautiful things; it’s about expanding what’s possible. It changes how people relate to the world around them. When you start to understand that, you realize that choosing to be an artist isn’t selfish or impractical. It’s one of the ways in which we can show up for each other.

So even though it meant choosing the harder, less certain path—it felt like the right one. It’s about contributing something real to the world around me.

Yukti V. , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a multidisciplinary creative. I’m an artist, designer, curator, writer, editor, researcher, collaborator, storyteller—often all at once. I believe that creativity is about connection: helping people see differently, feel differently, and imagine something a little bigger than what’s in front of them.

I work at the intersection of curatorial, editorial, and research-driven practices across the art, design, and culture sectors. My background spans psychology, contemplative studies, textiles, and art history, so I’m always thinking about how we experience the world—not just visually, but emotionally, physically, and culturally. Whether through writing, visual media, or exhibitions, I’m drawn to projects that bridge physical and digital spaces in ways that feel thoughtful, layered, and alive.

I graduated from the Brown | RISD Dual Degree Program, earning degrees from both Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design. Along the way, I’ve had the chance to work on some meaningful projects—from curating interventions at the RISD Museum that challenge colonial narratives, to collaborating with pioneers like Hans Ulrich Obrist and Diana Campbell on special programming at India Art Fair, to founding desi-gned (New England’s first publication dedicated to the South Asian diaspora).

My work has been shown internationally, including at Milan Design Week, and some of my writing and creative projects are part of permanent collections at the John Hay Library and the Fleet Library.

At the core of it all, my work is about building spaces—physical, digital, and imaginative—that invite reflection, connection, and new ways of seeing.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think the biggest thing society can do is to stop treating creativity as an “extra”—something nice-to-have when everything else is taken care of. Creativity is how we process the world and eventually solve real-world problems. Supporting artists and creatives means investing in education, funding independent work, creating more accessible spaces for showing and sharing work, and rethinking how we value labor that’s intellectual, emotional, and cultural—not just economic.

A thriving creative ecosystem needs more than audiences; it needs collaborators, patrons, policymakers, and institutions who understand that creative work is essential to a healthy, dynamic society. It’s about building structures that don’t just consume culture, but nurture the people who make it.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Fiction has shaped my thinking about management and entrepreneurship more than any business book ever has. My top picks include Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, and The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand—though not all three are strictly fiction. These works taught me about ambition, resistance, identity, and the weight of history—essential things to navigate if you want to build anything that lasts.

Fiction opens up the world. It invites you to inhabit perspectives beyond your own, to make sense of complexity without simplifying it. That kind of imaginative, ethical engagement is central to how I approach both creative and entrepreneurial work.

Critical essays have also been a huge part of my education. My go-to is, and always will be, Gayatri Spivak. I’ve also been deeply moved by Anita Dube’s curatorial statement for the 2018 Kochi-Muziris Biennale, and Michael Bierut’s essays—especially his reminder that designers, and by extension all creatives, must understand the world beyond their tools. These works have reinforced something I feel every day: creativity is not a sealed-off discipline. It demands engagement—with politics, history, emotion, economics—if you want to make work that matters.

To me, creative and entrepreneurial thinking aren’t separate tracks. They both begin with careful attention to the world, a commitment to asking better questions, and a willingness to build with care, imagination, and responsibility.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yukti.v.agarwal/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yukti-v-agarwal/

Image Credits

Erik Gould, Kaiolena Tacazon, Maureen Scaly