By Lissy Maruthanakuzhy
Nagpur: The international airport at Nagpur, central India, now sports new murals that promote a cause dear to India.
The artwork measuring 2,030-square meters at Dr Babsahib Ambedkar International Airport highlights the need to protect the girl child. As many as 46 artists, including an American, took 13 days to complete the project.
Augustina Droze, an American artist who has visited India four times, says she has realized that the girl child “is the biggest issue in the country.” The recipient of a Fulbright grant said she chose “Girl child empowerment through education” as her subject in the mural painting.
“The enlarged original mural drawings on the wall are chosen from the paintings of three girls. Their faces are also drawn on the walls by Augustina (Droze),” Sunita Shukla of the foundation told Matters India. She said 150 girls chosen from 60 schools managed by the foundation had participated in the drawing.
The project was inspired by Suchika Gupta Deshmukh, managing director of HERD (Health, Education and Rural Development) Foundation, a private non-profit organization. The project comes under its “Art for a cause initiative.”
Deshmukh and her husband Amol founded the foundation to bring social, civic and economic development to the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra through healthcare, education and rural advancement. Amol Deshmukh is a physician, healthcare expert and development sector aficionado.
Droze says has done mural artwork on the walls earlier. “But not at the airport and not on the girl education theme,” she told Matters India. “I enjoyed doing it here,” she added.
The artist based at Buffalo in New York said she loves the Indian culture and find Indians warm and welcoming. “I will back again this summer.”
Droze works primarily as a public artist and muralist, as well as a painter and art educator. She is currently a Fullbright-Nehru Senior Scholar working on a mural project in India. Her painting can be seen across the country.