Dr Alka Pande is an art historian who taught Indian Arts and Aesthetics at Panjab University for more than ten years. Her major fields of interest are gender identity and sexuality, and traditional arts. Dr Pande, under the aegis of the Charles Wallace India Trust, conducted postdoctoral research in critical art theory at Goldsmiths, University of London. In 2006, she was awarded the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters- an honour bequeathed by the French government to recognize significant contributions in the fields of art and literature. In 2009, she received the Australian-India Council Special Award for her contribution to Indian art. In 2015, she was awarded L’Oreal Paris Femina Women under Design and Arts and Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi honours-in recognition of the distinguished contribution to art-with Amrita Sher-Gil Samman. Dr. In 2023, she was awarded as the Culture Champion and Women of the Year by She Inspires Awards. For her outstanding achievements and seminal contribution to Indian Art as an Educator, Curator, Promotor of Cultural Heritage, CIMA was proud to confer on Dr Alka Pande, the CIMA Lifetime Achievement Award 2023. Pande has been passionately involved with the world of art for more than three decades. She has been responsible for curating several significant and perceptive exhibitions in India and abroad. Dr. Pande is the artistic director of photography biennale Habitat Photosphere, a photography award instituted by India Habitat Centre. Her curatorial projects include the exhibitions, The Tree from the Seed at the Henie-Onstad Art Centre, Oslo; India Awakens Under the Banyan Tree at the Essl Museum, Vienna; and The Kama Sutra: Spirituality and Eroticism in Indian Art at the Pinacotheque, Paris, to name a few. Dr Pande was closely involved with South Central Zone Cultural Centre unique initiative project titled Documentation of Tangible and Intangible Cultural Resources. In the capacity of a curator, Dr Pande held an exhibition titled Tat Tvam Asi (That Thou Art) at IGNCA to showcase traditional arts, creative photographs, video installations which were produced during a month-long art camp at the Simhastha Kumbh, Ujjain (2016).

Dr Pande is responsible for setting-up museums: Divine Gesture, Udaipur City Palace, Kanha Museum, Singinawa. She is on the advisory of the Bihar Museum. Dr Pande has been the chief curator for the Bihar Museum Biennale 1 and 2 in the year 2021 and 2023. She has extensively written and edited books on Indian art, aesthetics, culture and photography, some of her prominent books including : Body Sutra (2019), Third Eye: Photography and Ways of Seeing (2019), Panchtattvas: The Road Ahead (2017), Voices and Images (2015), Divine Gesture: The Magnificence of Mewar Spirituality (2016), Musicscapes: The Multiple Emotions of Indian Music (2016), Theatrescapes: Experience Rasas (2014), Mukhwas: Indian Food through the Ages (2013), Shringara: The Many faces of Indian Beauty (2011), Leela: An Erotic Play of Verse and Art (2009), The New Age Kama Sutra for Women (2006), Indian Art: The New International Sensation (2008), The Collector’s Handbook (2005), Ardhanarishvara the Androgyne: Probing the Gender Within (2004), Indian Erotica (2002), From Disco Lights to Mustard Fields: A Study of the Folk Instruments and Performers of Panjab (1999) to name a few. She is the chief editor of a theme-based IHC Visual Arts Journal including Art Journal (2017-18), Land Art with special reference to Aravallis (2017), Art in Public Spaces (2016), Creative Consumerism: Art Market and Beyond (2014), Cross Culture: Enacted Aesthetic: with Special Reference to Rabindranath Tagore (2011), New Media (2009), Abhyas (2008), Notions of India (2007), Exploring Art and Perception (2006), Multiple Voices (2005), Design (2004), Photography (2003), Internationalism, Cosmopolitanism and Globalisation (2002), and Understanding Art (2001). Currently, Dr Pande is a consultant art advisor and curator of the Visual Arts Gallery at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi (India).