When mere survival and the rat race have run their course, When changing lives, one by one, becomes your driving force, When the message impacts both mind and heart, When society improves because business embraces art.... This is the philosophy of Shikha Mittal, founder director of the Delhi-based Be.artsy, which she set up with the stated vision of performing, visual and literary art as a viable industry and a catalyst for social change, and a mission to meet the needs of society and business with high-impact solutions based on art and technology. Mittal, who describes herself as ‘a cross between a prophet and a drill sergeant’, decided to toss corporate sales after seven years in favour of making art commercially viable, so that people could be artsy. With enough clients now so enchanted by street theatre and other art-based solutions, her social enterprise has been growing exponentially since 2010 and has spread all over India. “The best buzz is knowing that you’ve changed someone's life for the better!” she says. Like most starry-eyed newly minted graduates, says Mittal, she was “tossed into corporate life without any clue about how to conduct myself, handle my new money, how to assert my rights to a safe workplace, or any of the skills required to navigate the world of wolves.” Even her senior co-workers were of little help, as they were not trained to handle corporate competition, politics or harassment. This lack of social awareness in the workplace led Mittal, now 37, to quit her ‘settled’ job, and set up a traditional not-for-profit organisation – but it ended in zero net worth early in 2010. Not one to give up, she restarted within a few months and set up Be.artsy as a for-profit business to create a viable business out of awareness programmes aimed at the corporate world. She has never looked back – the venture was profitable from year one. Today, she finds it ‘tremendously satisfying’ that at least 500,000 people have been touched by Be.artsy over the past 10 years. Mittal’s art director Shilpa Dhere is ‘the Peter Parker of infographics, who leaps over tall buildings and spins a web of high art and design whenever her spider-sense tingles’ -- that grabs all viewers. Be.artsy’s unique take on awareness programmes uses edutainment methods like street theatre, posters, and short videos to make complex or taboo topics simple and accessible. The sessions are engaging and interactive, making audience participation high and creating a significant, measurable, impact. Each session covers 40-200 people and is customised depending on the specific format, the topic and the needs of the audience. In the beginning, they conducted awareness programmes covering a gamut of topics like financial inclusion, prevention of sexual harassment, health-related topics and the importance of paying utility bills on time. In the firm belief that youth can create change, they targeted a lot of colleges. The programmes succeeded, attracting the attention of United Nations agencies like UNIC and UNV. This encouraged the team to start an annual street theatre festival, Be on the street, in which tens of colleges from major cities participated. This festival focusses on the UN Millennium Development Goals, now the Sustainable Development Goals. Along the way, these UN agencies also engaged the organisation for various programmes on health, like AIDS awareness and mental health, to engage Indian youth.
-
Be.artsy helps artistes to earn their livelihood doing what they love
