The Indian filmmaker, author, and curator Madhusree Dutta will be the new Artistic Director of the Academy of the Arts of the World. Dutta, a founding member of the Academy, will begin her new role on March 1, 2018, and will move from Mumbai (India) to Cologne for this purpose. Her contract runs for an initial 10 months, but ideally should be extended for another two years. Madhusree Dutta wants her contract to be dependent upon how the financial situation of the Academy develops in light of the budget cuts made by the Cologne city council. In 1990 Dutta cofounded the interdisciplinary cultural center Majlis in Mumbai, which among other activities advocates for women’s rights in India.