Chrysalis: Art and Human Flourishing — Panel Discussion
November 19, 2026
5:30pm
Annenberg Center
Chrysalis: Pragya Gupta is an exhibition of paintings by artist Pragya Gupta on view at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, October 15 through December 13, 2026.
Please join The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation on Thursday, November 19, 2026, at the Annenberg Center for “Chrysalis: Art and Human Flourishing,” a panel discussion featuring artist Pragya Gupta, writer and curator Anisa Jackson, and James Pawelski, professor of practice and director of education in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
What makes us question the lives we have built and imagine new possibilities for ourselves? Can an encounter with art awaken something in us that sets change in motion?
Transitioning from a career in finance, artist Pragya Gupta has drawn on the writings of psychologists such as Abraham Maslow, Carl Jung, Erich Fromm, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi while navigating a path that diverged from conventional expectations. Their collective explorations of self-discovery and creativity have informed her own questions about what it means to grow and live more fully.
In a discussion guided by writer and curator Anisa Jackson, Pragya and James Pawelski will explore how art can expand our understanding of ourselves and open up possibilities for growth. Bringing together an artist’s lived experience and a psychologist’s research into human flourishing, the conversation will consider how art might shape the ways we change and become.
This program is free and open to the public. Advance registration is requested but not required to attend.
- Thursday, November 19, 2026
5:30–7:00 PM - Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
3680 Walnut Street
University of Pennsylvania
Chrysalis: Pragya Gupta, an exhibition of paintings by artist Pragya Gupta is on view in the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Pennsylvania, October 15 through December 13, 2026.
About the Speakers
- Pragya Gupta (b. 1986, Patiala, India) grew up in India without access to the arts and followed a path shaped largely by the expectations around her. She studied engineering, earned an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (WG‘14), and built a finance career in London. Everything about this path shifted for Pragya during a visit to the National Gallery. Standing before the paintings, she felt a primal need to create. Sparked by that realization, she eventually left the world of finance and began asking a question that continues to shape her life and work: What is my life asking of me? (pragyaguptastudio.com)
- James O. Pawelski, PhD is professor of practice and director of education in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the founding director of the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project, which has been designated a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab. (humanitiesandhumanflourishing.org)
- Anisa Jackson is a curator, writer, and researcher based in New York. Jackson is Director of Public Programs at the Museum of the City of New York and Curator-At-Large at the Aspen Art Museum. (anisajackson.com)
About the Exhibition
Chrysalis: Pragya Gupta is centered on a new series of tetraptychs (four-paneled artworks) by Penn alum Pragya Gupta, presented alongside earlier works that trace the evolution of the artist’s inquiry into what it means to be intimate with one’s own life. Her paintings explore the tension between the selves we construct and the more intimate parts of ourselves that can be harder to hear.
Across the new works, the four-panel structure, scale, and relationship between commercial canvas and stitched fabric remain constant, while the visual language changes markedly from one work to another. The shared structure becomes a kind of container for change, allowing the same inquiry to unfold differently in each work.
Acknowledgments
The exhibition Chrysalis: Pragya Gupta was produced by The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation in partnership with Penn Live Arts.
The exhibition is organized as part of the Arts of India Festival, presented by Penn Live Arts in partnership with Sruti, Philadelphia’s Indian Music and Dance Society.
