Sociopreneurship Partner : Sulochana Development Trust

Our partner for Sociopreneurship Sulochana Development Trust supports Creative arts and design for social impact. Achyutha Sharma, founder Sulochana Trust talks to us about his venture and vision. Achyutha Sharma is a design entrepreneur from India, who is building projects to have a creative and social impact. He is currently running an art organization, Antahkaran, art customized for spaces with social and ethical impact. Additionally he is building a charitable trust that supports Creative arts & design for social impact, the Sulochana development trust with a vision to incorporate Creative economy in India.He graduated as a Fashion designer from NIFT Delhi, and though he considers clothing the best product to design, his passion lies in multi – disciplinary design and the potential impact of the creative industry in India. He has worked with Fashion, retail design, branding, design strategy and communication in his professional experience that has inspired him to build a vision that is universal yet regional in its application.

Introduce Sulochana Trust to our readers.

Sulochana Development Trust supports Creative arts and design for social impact. The Trust supports and funds individuals and non-profit organizations that use creative arts and design as a tool for social change. As an example, we have developed art education curriculum for under – privileged children who can be empowered and inspired through art education. We intend to make a creative impact in India’s development and defining a path of development that is ‘holistic’ based on social, economic, ecological and cultural context.

Our website: www.sulochanatrust.org

Why Sulochana Development Trust? What is the scope and its relevance in India?

Creativity is not just what we imagine or do, it is how we live, work and shape our future. India traditionally has built a lineage of cultural narratives, multi – disciplinary arts and creativity yet lacks support to bring social change through creative arts. We would like to demystify the myth that Creative arts & design is a privilege or indulgence rather than a necessity in our daily lives. It is presumed that creative arts and design cannot have innovative and tangible impact in the development sector. Sulochana Development Trust looks at this opportunity to bring creative arts as a tool for a holistic change, a change that looks at social, economic, ecological and cultural context.Sulochana Trust is focused on social sector but the trust will associate and make an impact across sectors and communities. The scope of the trust is to focus broadly in two areas: people and projects. People who can be empowered and supported by our work. And, projects from creative disciplines, creative ideas and creative impact.

The trust will work and associate with NGO’s, Government bodies/ Organizations, For - Profit Organizations with development impact, Non-Profit Organizations, Corporate., Foundations/ Trusts, Institutes/ Universities, Individual innovators & Entrepreneurs. Our impact will be on urban cities & towns, rural areas, Communities & tribes, Non-Profit Organizations, Institutes/ Universities, Government bodies/ Organizations, Individual innovators & Entrepreneurs.

What is the vision of Sulochana Trust?

Vision : To integrate the concept of creative economy with India’s development. The Creative economy as a concept has been defined within a development context of India and based on a sustainable future. The development contexts and the concept is built on Creative ideas & Value Creation, Social relevance, Economic sustainability, Ecological balance and Cultural contextualization.

The roadmap is to work on creative impact projects, associate with organizations across sectors, partner on projects with the government and align all like – minded organizations together for our vision. Once we create tangible impact and align more organizations, we will put together a creative economy vision accord, which is like a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that can be ratified by various organizations across India who want to operate and impact under the concept of creative economy. With a credible size and numbers under the vision accord, we would then approach the government of India to officially adopt it as a policy in their development work and helps us achieve our vision.

How does the Trust make an impact in India ? Who will benefit from your work ?

The impact of the Trust is primarily in two areas: first, India’s development within our creative economy concept. By supporting and incubating innovative projects in creative disciplines that can make an impact in the society like designing innovative product for women’s health in rural areas, designing user centric museums and education of values for children through interactive theatre. The unique part of our development impact from other organizations is that we intend to integrate our socio - cultural context in our projects. India is loosing its socio – cultural ideas, practices and values in our modernization process and we want to preserve, contextualize and integrate it in our development.

Second, building a dynamic creative community. We will empower, train and support creative individuals, organizations and communities that use creative arts as a tool to bring development change. Many creative individuals lack a supportive eco- system that gives them an access to innovative tools, skills and learning programs that can help them to contribute to India’s development.

What are the plans of the Trust in the next two years?

The roadmap is to work on creative impact projects, associate with organizations across sectors, partner on projects with the government and align all like – minded org. together for our vision. Sulochana Trust is broadly looking at four verticals of projects:

Creative Impact Projects like our Art Education program followed by many creative arts/ design projects. It will focus on project centric development impact using creative disciplines.

Creative Entrepreneurship that consists of creative training programs, institute education program and student venture incubation. It will focus people centric work on empowering creative individuals and their associated organization/ work.

Creative Ventures are ventures initiated or supported by the Trust like Collaborative Community as an example. These are small scale projects that can be scaled up as independent organizations/ ventures initiated or supported by the Trust.

Creative Economy Campaign that focuses on creating awareness & educating individuals, organizations about the CE concept and its relevance.

Our plans are to scale up these projects and create tangible impact that will help us align more communities and organizations. After five years, we intend to work on our creative economy vision accord that will bring together innovators and thinkers across sectors on one platform to formulate the vision accord.

What are the current projects running under Sulochana Trust ?

Collaborative Community - Collaborative Community offers creative and strategic solutions to non-profit and for-profit organizations that work in the social sector, in India.

Our services include Branding, Strategy, Design Solutions (Communication, Product, Web and Space), Creative Marketing and Design Workshops. We intend to fill the gap of a single platform of creative services that can accelerate social impact in India. We propose to do so by offering the skills / expertise of industry professionals who will provide us with their resourceful insight from India as well as the world. We have a dynamic pool of talent spread across various sectors, providing their skills / expertise towards our projects of Social Innovation, in India.

Art education program - In collaboration with Antahkaran, an art organization, the Trust is exclusively developing an art education curriculum from the age group of 4 to 15 years children that can be adopted by non – profit organizations that work exclusively with children welfare, education or development in India.

The art curriculum is based on modules and is designed for a period of 2 years incorporating a multi – sensorial and holistic perspective towards art as a medium of education and creativity for a child.

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