Anika Somaia, founder, Open Canvas, a public arts project talks to Art Culture Festival about the impact of creating art in public spaces and how it is bringing positive change in the communities.
Ekatmata Sharma
What is Open Canvas?
Open canvas is an organisation on a mission to make art in India more democratic and accessible by painting murals that transform shared spaces.
More and more, visuals in our country’s public spaces have been limited to advertising, religious messaging and political propaganda, rather than art. At the same time, art in the formalised, institutionalised sense is often perceived as a sphere of high culture inaccessible to many.
Open Canvas seeks to remind people what public art can be, and harness the power it has to shape communities – whether by developing an increased sense of safety, prompting reduced littering or nurturing young talent.
What initiated you to start Open Canvas?
It all started with my first experience of public art creation, at a…