Who: Poornima Sukumar
Education: Diploma from Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Diploma from National Institute of Design.
When Poornima Sukumar agreed to help a documentary filmmaker create a piece on the transgender community in India, she didn’t realise how much her life was going to change. The project was over quite quickly, but the friends that she has made within the transgender community are for life.
Poornima has always loved and enjoyed creating art. Her time in art school helped her realise that she wanted to explore her gift in a different way and try to make an impact.
After working on the documentary, she realised that she wanted to use her art as a way to uplift and spread awareness about transgender people. Many people in India hate and fear transgender people out of ignorance. Poornima’s beautiful venture – the Aravani Art Project – gave people the chance to meet and get to know transgender people in a new way.
The project consists of various volunteers painting lovely murals in public spaces – bringing beauty to boring and dirty places. Volunteers and visitors also got to know the people behind the ‘transgender’ label and really understand the difficulties they face.
Poornima believes that we can be a truly inclusive society if we encourage our children, friends and family to be more open minded. There are so many wonderful people in the world, and their shape, colour or size should not keep you from getting to know them!
With many socially impactful projects on her plate, we can’t wait to see what Poornima will do next.
Long Story Short
- Poornima Sukumar is a freelance artist who enjoys taking on social impact projects.
- She worked with a documentary maker to create a piece on transgender in India.
- While working on the project, she got to know many transgender people and wanted to help them.
- She started the Aravani Art Project to show people a different side of the transgender community.
- The project has several volunteers who help transform neglected spaces with beautiful murals.