Best known as a development professional and arts manager, Hasini Haputhanthri collaborates with a global network of researchers and practitioners on peacebuilding, education, arts and heritage management.  Her current focus is on reinventing museums as sites of inclusion, innovative pedagogy and civic engagement. Her publications include Archive of Memory: Reflections of 70 years of Independence, Cultural Fluency: A Transformative Agenda for Caring Communities, Museums, Memory and Identity Politics in Sri Lanka, and Shared Sanctity: Art and Architecture of Religious Confluence.

Initially trained as a sociologist at Delhi University India and Lund University Sweden, Hasini later specialised in Oral History and Museum Anthropology at Columbia University New York. She has worked with several international and local organisations on peacebuilding in Sri Lanka for the past 15 years, most notably with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) where she led the culture and conflict programme for 10 years. She has worked on cultural and educational policy issues as well as working with over 100 artists and art organisations in Sri Lanka. Her recent cross border collaboration ‘World Art and Memory Museum’ brings together curators and cultural activists from 7 different countries. She speaks regularly on social inclusion, culture and heritage management issues on a variety of international platforms.

Participant in: August 2023 Fellowship: The Arts as a Tool for Peacebuilding