Article by Jahnavi Shukla

On August 17th, Aadya Bommineni, Bhargavi Mannepalli, Rithika Arumugam, Anika Adusumelli, Sneha Sankar, Meera Sankar, Dhiya Sankar, and Guhan Thiagarajan volunteered to represent our school and art style at the NW Folklife and City of Bothell Summer Nights Event. The volunteers split up into two groups; one group took the first shift of volunteering, and the other took the second. They worked hard to teach the community about the Madhubani art style, as well as sell prints.

Almost every volunteer also stepped up and took the opportunity to speak on stage about their artwork. For many of them, the speech was the hardest part, but as Meera encapsulated, “I overcame that challenge [of the speech] when I saw how people were intrigued by my culture.” It is clear that our volunteers were able to capture the community’s interest, enjoy themselves, and learn new skills at this event.

Article by Jahnavi Shukla

This summer, one of the students from our school, Mahathi Anshitha Barrenkala, hosted and taught an in-person Madhubani workshop in India for the Mathru Abhinaya Foundation girls' orphanage. Mahathi’s family and another family were able to sponsor a day of activities and dinner for the orphanage.

To prepare, Mahathi’s family helped her organize the event and gather materials, including the wooden coasters that the girls would draw and paint on. On the day of the event, Mahathi spent over five hours teaching girls as young as five years old, to those as old as the tenth grade, how to draw and paint Madhubani designs on coasters.

Overall, the artwork created by the artists at the event proved that everyone’s effort was worth it. Reflecting on the experience, Mahathi says, “The girls really enjoyed the activity. It was nice to have the opportunity to conduct a workshop like this.”

Article by Manavi Shukla

Aradhna Praveen and Aadya Bommineni worked together this month to publish the second edition of Vyakhya, a blog that celebrates different Madhubani artists every month. In this month’s edition, the theme was celebrating India’s independence. This month’s chosen artists were Oviya Raja, Shriya Shaji, and Dhruvika Gogoi. Go to Month 2 - Celebrating India’s Independence Day — Deepti Designs INC to see their art pieces and read more about them!

Article by Jahnavi Shukla

Our school was invited to have a booth at the annual Culture Fest, hosted by the city of Issaquah. Dharini Bysani, Gaurangi Gupta, Tushar Gupta, and Satvik Tadiparti volunteered and took up this opportunity. For over two hours, the volunteers helped run the booth, engaging the visitors and managing the stall. The people who visited the booth got the opportunity to create and take home a Madhubani-style wooden coaster. Many also decided to design their coasters in their own way. “I really enjoyed this event. It was super fun to help kids with the Madhubani that I'm learning, and also cool to see people put their own creative twist,” says Dharini, capturing the essence of this year’s Culture Fest. It was a successful experience for our volunteers and seemed to be an enjoyable time for the visitors; a wonderful community event overall!

Article by Anishka Gogoi

The Heritage Arts Apprenticeships Program (HAAP) recently hosted a summit on September 7th at Black & Tan Hall in Seattle. Past apprentices, including student Prisha Mundra from Deepti Designs, presented their cultural art forms to each other and HAAP board members. All the artists "went one by one, on stage, and explained their artform and presented it. Overall it was a really fun and cool experience to learn about all the cultures," says Prisha. It was an engaging event, offering a glimpse into diverse cultural traditions, and we are so glad that Prisha was able to represent Madhubani art and Deepti Designs there!

Article by Anvika Bheemarasetty

Congratulations to this year's PVSA qualifiers! Every artist on this list worked hard throughout the year and collected between 50 and 200 volunteer hours, showcasing their immense hard work and dedication! 

Gold:

Anugraha Ganesh

Arianna Sinha

Rama Panchapagesan

Ritisha Saraogi

Aadya Bommineni

Anvika Bheemarasetty

Srinidhi Kodemala

Silver:

Meenakshi Iyer

Shriya Shaji

Varsha Subramanian

Bronze:

Nikita Thakalath

Krithi Siva

Anika Adusumelli

Arunim Goyal

Mahathi Barrenkala

Article by Anvika Bheemarasetty

Each September, the city of Snoqualmie partners with the SnoValley Chamber to host the Snoqualmie International Block Party.  This year, Deepti Designs brought the vibrant beauty of Madhubani art to the Snoqualmie International Block Party by showcasing the work of several students. From hand-painted masterpieces to interactive line art, the booth celebrated Indian folk art with a modern touch. Several art prints created by the students were available for sale and it was a grand success. There were also hand-painted earrings with Madhubani motifs and perfumes with essential oils for sale that were much appreciated by all.