We recently connected with Lavanyaa Surendar and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Lavanyaa, thanks for joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

Art has the potential to be a dynamic career . The art world is challenging and competitive to navigate. Initially when I transitioned to being a full time artist quitting the Science field , I understood that being an artist does not involve just researching and performing but ensuring that the work gets noticed by the curators, art organizations and the community. This involves making sure that the work is relatable and benefits the community. The difference between amateur and professional creatives is often the time spent on the actual craft. My passion lies in integrating Arts , Science and the community. I know for a fact that arts is significant for developing a happy and an inclusive community and hence made a conscious choice of being a full time artist. Having said that I feel that being an artist is also a regular job if we adhere to a strict schedule and work with discipline.

Lavanyaa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an artist and an educator myself .Performance link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epbhPApd9r8 8 years ago, I completely transitioned from being a performing artist/ Biologist to an art educator/entrepreneur/community
developer. The intent continues to be to educate and integrate arts & culture with community. I quickly realized the transition gap from being a performing artist to an Arts+Science educator/ Entrepreneur. It made me realize that, while being an artist
involves more researching and performing the art form, being an educator/ entrepreneur requires more than that. It involves wearing different hats including understanding diversity in-depth, marketing (websites), grant writing, project/program management (Curating), leading direct/indirect teams, handling finances etc. I also understood that, if done right, through good leadership, art can be a made a more effective community engagement tool and can be used to voice social issues.
Being an Educator also made me explore application of arts in different sectors. For example, use of arts as an intervention
treatment tool. I was able to understand the relationship between arts and sensory- emotional aspects of human experience. Anyone can engage his/her senses, intuition and interpretation to interact with art. I found that there is great potential in the of mental health, a potential to engage people to use their senses, intuition and interpretive abilities to think differently. Hence, I collaborated with the Mental Health organization and supported the community by engaging artists. This was a big win given how the pandemic has put people on the edge of depression and other mental health issues. The most important self-satisfaction I gained from transitioning to an art educator/ nonprofit leader is to have the opportunity to be a
steppingstone for the success of other aspiring artists/ community members. Through Ziksa, a non-profit digital platform, I was able to provide an opportunity for more than 50 artists to showcase their talent/share artistic experience. Furthermore, I was able to collaborate with theatre companies, universities and other non-profit organizations to get them into commissioned projects. Currently, my interdisciplinary research brings together Literature, Arts & Neuroscience perspectives to explore the Arts as a community engagement tool. I strongly advocate “Diversity & inclusion” in community as my research reveals that sustained exposure to a set of cultural experiences and behavioral practices has an impact in neural structure and function.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

While many people choose their career based on several parameters including pay scale, career growth, proximity etc. I feel the most important factor should be passion. Passion acts as the driving force to enhance work-life balance. Having a career based on our passion motivates us to do better. This could be a hard decision but it will help us in staying inspired and pushing ourselves to do the best. While most people in the creative sector choose their career based only on their passion and hence they experience happiness and fulfillment.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is to develop a happy and an inclusive community through arts. I believe that arts should be accessible to everyone and it is essential for the school districts to adopt from STEM to STEAM so that all the students are exposed to arts during their early childhood education. Arts help people understand diverse culture better and my goal is to use arts as a community engagement tool in creating an inclusive space for everyone in the community.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lavanyaasurendar.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lavanyaa_suren/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lavanyaa.sathyanarayanan
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lavanyaa-surendar/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@aslavanyaa