Asia Society will honor Kiran Nadar, a leader in the Indian art world credited with “profoundly” shaping it and increasing the visibility of Indian Modern and Contemporary art worldwide, through the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), a global platform established in 2010, to showcase and promote that country’s art. Nadar, who lives in Delhi with her husband Shiv Nadar, will be honored at the Asia Society’s 12th Annual Asia Game Changers Awards Gala scheduled to be held October 15, 2025, at Cipriani 25 Broadway in New York City.
Nadar’s continuously expanding, diverse art collection today comprises more than 15,000 plus artworks representative of all major phases of modern and contemporary Indian art. Under her guidance KNMA also drives outreach programs to nurture a museum-going culture among Indian youth, a press release from Asia Society said.
Asia Society praised Nadar’s initiatives including her collaborations with globally renowned museums including the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Tate Modern (London), Musée Des Arts Asiatiques, (Nice), Sharjah Art Foundation (Sharjah), Barbican (London) and Musée Guimet (Paris) in a short span.
Nadar is also credited with being the driving force behind the India Pavilion: Collaboration of Ministry of Culture, KNMA, CII and NGMA: Our time for a Future caring: at the 2019 La Biennale, the Venezia. Additionally, she also serves as an International Council member of the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA).
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The KNMA is set to open a new state-of-the-art building near Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. Covering 100,000 square meters (over 1 million square feet), the building is expected to be an architectural marvel, and to be a global cultural hub for visual arts, music, dance, and theater. The new space will feature changing exhibitions, permanent displays, and performances, making it a versatile space for artistic expression. With its strategic location on National Highway (NH8), KNMA aims to become an international cultural destination accessible to a diverse audience.
Besides art and institution–building, Nadar is an acclaimed international-level Bridge player. She is one of the top Indian players of competitive Bridge and represented India at 2018 Jakarta Palembang Asian Games, winning Bronze in the mixed team category. She has also won several laurels as a member of the “Formidables” team, leading it to victory at the Commonwealth Nations Bridge Championships 2018, bringing gold to India after 12 years. She is the driving force behind the HCL International Bridge Championship, which has been in existence for 18 years now.
She shares her husband’s commitment to philanthropy. Shiv Nadar’, apart from being the founder, HCL, is the Founder & Chairman of the Shiv Nadar Foundation which has invested US$1.5 billion to create institutions of transformational education, to help create India’s next-generation of leaders, including private engineering colleges around the country, as well as, in the schools’ space, VidyaGyan schools in Uttar Pradesh and greater Delhi, bearing the Shiv Nadar name.
Kiran Nadar is a member of the Rasaja Foundation which has been involved in a joint initiative with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation to promote the education of the Dalit and Muslim girl child in some of the most backward districts in Uttar Pradesh in India.
She has received numerous awards, including the Padma Shri from the Indian government, the CSP Hero’s Award presented by the Australian High Commissioner for promoting Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) between India and Australia. In 2023, she was bestowed with the title of “Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur” (Knight of the Legion of Honour), the highest French civilian award.
She was also recognized globally as one of the 100 most influential individuals in the contemporary art world, by the UK-based ArtReview and has also been included in Artnews’ Top 200 Collectors. Additionally, Forbes Asia Magazine recognized her as a ‘hero of philanthropy’ in 2010, for launching Kiran Nadar Museum of Art – India’s first philanthropic private museum of modern and contemporary art.