Today, the ideal vacation goes way beyond idling away time and unwinding in a picturesque and over-priced location. Travellers of today are a lot more well-rounded and clear about their expectations from a holiday. Conscious travelling, artistic vacations, and ‘workations’ are some of the variations of what the ideal holiday of this post-pandemic world looks like and this Indian designer has embarked on a journey to revolutionise the industry.
Geetika Agarwal, the founder of VAWA (Vacation With An Artist) is a designer, educator, and an avid traveller who gave up on big city life to set out on a journey that would be enriching, educative, and empowering. Agarwal, who closed a chapter of her professional life in New York City a few years ago, set out on a year-long sabbatical with the aim of visiting 12 countries in 12 months.
Somewhere along this journey, the artist who was so intrigued by the local cultures that she immersed herself in, decided to curate an experience where this hands-on knowledge of a place’s culture, art, and language is made available to enthusiasts such as herself across the globe.
Keeping local artisans and their individual expertise at the core of these ‘artistic vacations’, Geetika devised a unique curation of places and cultures that have an enriching experience to offer to its tourists. VAWA facilitates an ideal vacation experience in artist studios around the world with an aim to let one ‘travel differently’.
VAWA also keenly documents the stories and experiences of its customers to encourage the idea of taking a vacation to learn. From pottery workshops to sculpting and fabric art, the experience brings together amateur artists with an intent to learn and explore and artisans who wish to elevate their expertise to cover a global arena.
To encourage and honour the community of participants, the art pieces created from these vacations by select artists are also on sale on VAWA’s website.
To learn more about VAWA’s initiatives and to participate, click here.
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