India is featured on a global design platform. The ARCH College of Design & Business’s Founder and Director, Archana Surana, has been chosen to the 8th CUMULUS Executive Board (2022-2025). CUMULUS is the world’s largest organization dedicated to art, design education, and research. With 350+ member institutions in 60+ countries, it represents a dynamic ecosystem.
Founder and Director of the ARCH College of Design & Business in Jaipur, Archana Surana “I was proposed for candidacy to the Board by Presidential Candidate Lorenzo Imbesi, a Full Professor from the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy,” Archana Surana said of her selection process. 356 universities from 66 countries voted, and I am now one of the Executive Board’s 11 members, led by Prof. Lorenzo Imbesi.
She is one of the 11 members of the Board that represents India. In terms of the benefits her representation would bring to Design Education in the country, she claimed that through this dynamic forum and platform for knowledge sharing and best practices, she would be able to bring in devoted advocacy for the beneficial role of designers and artists.
“I am a strong believer in designers and the Creative Industries playing an important and positive part in shaping a more sensitive, sympathetic, and better world.”
“I will seek cooperation and collaboration from industry bodies and fellow higher education institutions of design, architecture, and engineering in India for this purpose, as well as strengthening Cumulus’
‘Women in Design’ initiative and developing a mentorship model within the CUMULUS network,” she added.
Archana Surana, a woman entrepreneur and educator in India’s modern nascent state of Rajasthan, has succeeded in firmly establishing and reinforcing attitudes and knowledge of design and design education in the country for the past 27 years.
She has collaborated closely with the community on social projects, design intervention projects, and mentorship programs, as well as contributing to the larger mandate of design & creative entrepreneurship on many levels through industry collaboration and as a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s National Committee on Design India (2021-22). (CII).
She is also a US State Department and Rotary Foundation alumna, a Vital Voices Lead Fellow, and a Fortune and Global Ambassadors Program Mentee, and she developed the Women’s Mentors Forum to help and mentor women from all walks of life.