Nadia Samdani named MBE

Nadia Samdani, a British-Bangladeshi art patron, has been awarded Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire on the occasion of the Queen’s Birthday for her services to global art philanthropy.

The Queen’s Birthday Honours list recognises the achievements of a wide range of ‘extraordinary people’ across the UK. The list of the recipients of the prestigious honours has been published on the UK government’s website on Wednesday.

Samdani is the co-founder of Samdani Art Foundation in Bangladesh. She has brought attention to Bangladeshi contemporary artists both at home and abroad.

She also co-founded the Dhaka Art Summit, the highest visited art summit in the world, which welcomed 477,000 visitors in 2020.

Two more British-Bangladeshi are also on Queen’s Birthday Honours list. They are – Badrun Nesa Pasha and Mohammed Abdul Munim.

This year’s list of honorees also included author Salman Rushdie, illustrator Quentin Blake, actor Damian Lewis, presenter Clare Balding, fashion designer Stella McCartney, MasterChef’s John Torode and Gregg Wallace and footballer Rio Ferdinand.