Artivism is an initiative by Shakti Shalini to employ the arts as sites of therapy, awareness and activism for social change. Arts such as theatre, dance, music, painting, photography and so on are cultural sites and registers through which ideological changes can be facilitated to conduct a political opposition to oppression, violence and discrimination. Arts can become the points through which one negotiates, engages with, analyses and critiques one’s context thereby developing one’s political and social consciousness, self-reflexivity, knowledge and identity. Last but not the least, arts are charged with powerful affective potentials that may create spaces of freedom, dignity and hope crucial to healing and therapy. With this aim, Shakti Shalini has regularly attempted to conduct various workshops and classes with art organisations and groups. We hold dance classes and productions, theatre practices and productions, wall art, pottery painting, diya and candle making, jewelry making and paper-bags making with all six communities and residents of the shelter home.
