The Spark Arts Foundation

By Harivallabhi Ganapathy and Vaishnavi Vavilala (‘24)

Art can express many things and can be impactful in many ways. For Spark Arts, that is exactly the message they want to send to their community. 

The Spark Arts Foundation, founded by juniors Anokhi Shukla and Difan Li, dedicates its mission to harness the creative energy of students with unseen talents to address pressing global issues through art. The non-profit organization was built to introduce young artists from all around the world and have an impact not only on their community but also around the world. 

“I started this foundation because I hoped to create a platform where any young student, even at the age of five, could learn that their voice makes a difference. Spark Arts Foundation acts as a choice for students to stand up for what they believe in and truly impact the world around them. Spark Arts was created to bridge the gap between artwork and activism, turning what might be a visual concept into a tangible and positive consequence,” said co-founder and junior Li. 

Spark Arts focuses on four main topics that their arts focus on: environmental conversation, human rights and social justice, education equity, and healthcare access and awareness.  According to board members, the foundation can eliminate the stigma around art, as many people think it is useless and not expressive. Through this organization, people can realize that art is more than just art and that it can advocate for global issues just as well as protests or campaigns do. 

“I joined this foundation because I’ve been interested in art since I was a child and I thought that my past knowledge would be something I could contribute. Additionally, I feel very passionate about many of the causes and I felt that giving so many people the opportunity to donate and raise awareness about the causes without having to spend money, just simply through creativity, was a foundation I would love to be a part of and invest my time in,” said junior and director of events Anika Taiwade. 

Spark Arts is dedicated to spreading awareness worldwide, which is a key part of its foundation that sets it apart from other organizations with similar missions. Not only can people around the world create, submit , and share it on social media, but they could also permanently be part of the organization. If they support the cause and the issues that are relevant in society and the world right now, people could be inspired to create art. 

The types of art that Spark Arts aims for are paintings and drawings that are made with different types of paint or pencils. In the future, the foundation would love to accept other art forms, such as poetry and music. 

The foundation focuses on certain causes each month. For example, in April, they focused on the protection of the Sunda Tiger, the freedom of the press and expression of people in Myanmar, equal education opportunities for refugees, and youth mental health awareness. The foundation not only has meetings about these causes once a month and how they can educate their community, but it also asks for submissions of art based on the causes. 

“Honestly, I think this organization has an immense amount of potential. First of all, there are so many board members, and the distribution of tasks by our founders is so widespread that there is always at least one person tackling an issue or grabbing potential opportunities. Secondly, this organization advocates and creates relief efforts for global issues instead of merely spreading awareness, which at times can be helpful but not as helpful as actively doing something to make a change,” said junior and executive lead of website design Manusri Yarramsetty.