For You and Me by Dipali Gupta
On beauty, connection, fear, and why I created Art + Being.
Someone recently suggested I write about why I do what I do.
Why I continue pouring my own money, time and energy into Art + Being, knowing very well that there is no guarantee of ever seeing a financial return.
It's a fair question.
People walk into our space and see a beautiful gallery. Artwork carefully placed, flowers, music, perhaps a table laid for dinner. Everything looks effortless. And perhaps, from the outside, it appears that I have plenty of money to spare.
What they don't see is what it takes to create that experience.
The rent, salaries, framing, lighting, website, maintenance, endless little details.
And, of course, the time. My own time, which I give freely.
And then there is something else they don't see.
The fear.
I have been battling that little voice in my head that tells me to stop. The one that whispers frightening images of destitution, of losing my savings, of financial insecurity. Ha! Sometimes it even goes as far as imagining me homeless.
What are you doing? How will you pay the bills? Why are you spending your savings? Why are you feeding people who may not even appreciate what you're doing?
And yet, I continue.
Perhaps this is also why I began the Artists of Courage series.
Because courage is not the absence of fear.
I have fear, too. Plenty of it.
And perhaps courage is simply choosing to create something you believe in, even when that little voice is telling you to run in the opposite direction.
But this is not a story about money.
It is about why I choose to spend it.
And I think the answer is quite simple.
It brings me extraordinary joy.
Not just the art itself, although art has always been a great love of mine.
It is the possibility of what art can awaken in us.
Our imagination. Our curiosity. Our capacity to see something differently.
We are living through such conflicted, divided and often frightening times. So much of what surrounds us seems designed to capture our attention, reinforce our opinions, and keep us separated from one another.
And I wonder sometimes whether we are forgetting how to be curious. How to imagine. How to see the world through somebody else's eyes.
I believe beauty and creativity have an extraordinary role to play in this.
Not because beauty makes the world's problems disappear.
But because they remind us that there is more to life than the noise surrounding us.
And then there is the space itself.
I have always been extraordinarily sensitive to my surroundings. To light, nature, proportions, textures, the way objects relate to one another, and especially to the presence of people.
I feel a room before I can explain it.
I instinctively notice what is missing, what needs moving, where something feels uncomfortable, where there could be more breathing room.
Sometimes it's a painting that needs shifting. Sometimes a chair. A flower. A different light. Or introducing two people who might never otherwise have met.
I love creating a flow.
Perhaps that's why I don't really think of myself as a curator.
I am more of an alchemist of space.
I love taking a physical space and transforming it into something that can be felt.
Something alive.
And perhaps what gives me the greatest joy is witnessing what happens afterwards.
When we host a dinner, for example, I am rarely concerned about where I sit or whether I am part of every conversation.
I love observing.
Watching strangers become acquainted. Seeing an unexpected conversation unfold. Someone discovering an artist, an idea, a culture, or a perspective they had never encountered before.
Sometimes I am serving food, moving around, attending to something in the background.
And I am perfectly happy there.
Because it was never about me.
It is about what happens between us.
And suddenly I find myself back at the very beginning of Art + Being.
The Space In Between.
The space between an artwork and the person looking at it.
Between two strangers.
Between what we know and what we have yet to discover.
Between doing and being.
Perhaps that is what I have been creating all along.
Not simply a gallery filled with art, but a space where something unexpected can emerge.
Where imagination is awakened, where people connect, where beauty becomes an experience rather than an object.
Of course, I am also learning that joy alone cannot pay the bills. And if Art + Being is to continue growing, I need to find a way to make it sustainable without losing the very spirit that brought it into existence.
That, too, is part of the journey.
But I know why I began.
Because in a world that seems increasingly determined to divide us, I want to create spaces that bring us together.
Places that remind us to look again, to feel, to question, to imagine.
And perhaps, despite the fear, to have the courage to create something beautiful.
A space for Art. A place of Being.
And this is my Human Story
