Designing a space for visual artists and advocates of social justice to make an impact.

ROLE

Co-Founder

Director

SKILLS

Design Thinking

Creative Direction

Leadership

TYPE

Nonprofit & Student Organization

TIMELINE

June 2020 - January 2022

Coming into university as a Biochemistry major on the pre-med track, I quickly lost in touch with my creative side. I longed for a space to meet other visual artists with a purpose, so I created it.

WHAT IS Texas Visual Arts Collective (TVAC)?

Organizational Structure:

Founders: Vandana Seshadri, Jessica Nguyen

With backgrounds of a chemical engineering major and a biochemistry pre-med, we longed for a space to meet other visual artists with a purpose. Thus, we decided to start an organization at UT Austin centered around visual art as a tool to induce social change. Our goal was to connect student artists with our local communities.

Our main sentiment was this: you do not have to be an artist to join.

We structured our organization on the premise that one does not need to be a visual artist to join - so we created five departments: Art, Advertising, Finance, Philosophy, and Web Design.

In the midst of the pandemic, starting an organization from scratch was certainly not an easy task. We sent out an interest form to gauge interest, the results were outstanding.

What we found:

  1. ALL OR NOTHING: People felt like they had to put their creative passions on the back burner while pursuing their academic pursuits.

  2. EXISTING IN AN ECHO CHAMBER: People felt like there was little room in getting their voice out there. Especially at a time when many felt like they could show their support through reposting a graphic on social media, many felt like they were partaking in performative activism.

  3. COMBATING PERFORMATIVE ACTIVISM

  4. LACK OF COMMUNITY

The results reaffirmed our need for a space like the one we imagined.

WHAT I LEARNED:

  1. I created this organization from a time when I was still on the pre-med track. Despite my vision of a future as a doctor, I could not ignore this pull to pursue my creative passions. Seeing this project came to life reaffirmed my passion to build a community.

  2. Building a community from scratch is not easy. We can have amazing and brilliant ideas but with no way to execute, it can be challenging. Communication became crucial during this time.

  3. Ideas are not everything. While ideas are at the root of the organization, it’s important to recognize the scope of our projects. The process of design thinking really helped during this time.