When I started this research project, I did it with a fare amount of uncertainty as to what I hoped to achieve from it. I knew I wanted to educate myself so I could eventually be helpful, but beyond that very vague goal, I was essential following the path that the research was laying out for me. That ambiguity is obvious in my initial GoFundMe proposal and is probably why it has been so slow to gain support. (Although those that have supported me have gone above and beyond and I am forever grateful for that). I get it though. I could have waited another year -read some more, solidified my goals more, but the issue I am trying to tackle needed a solution 40 years ago, so I felt that even if I did not have all the pieces to the puzzle, I needed to start connecting what I had.

As I have read more, and spoken to more individuals invested in waste management issues in India, that fuzzy ambiguity has been replaced by a sharper clarity about what I hope to accomplish and how I hope to do it. This is very exciting for me because I feel like even if I am wrong about my direction, I at least have a jumping off point.

As mentioned before, one issue that comes up again and again is the problem of awareness. The general public just doesn’t know how waste management is working or not working in their city, what the benefits are, who is working hard toward improvements, what kind of help they need, and how they can help.

NGOs, Municipalities and PPPs (Public-Private Partnerships) seem to be doing their best with awareness campaigns but I feel like more can be done and I’d like to enlist the help of local street artists to do that. If awareness is the issue, there’s nothing harder to remain oblivious too that an enormous piece of wall or public art. Art can also convey a message without the need for written language, and with a large illiterate population in some of the poorest and most waste-burdened areas of India, it’s critical that messages be displayed clearly without the burden of the written word.

Murals are a long-time passion of mine. I did a few at a teenager and have always wanted to do them again. For the purposes of this research and this project however, I think it’s important for me to put aside that desire and do everything I can to support Indian artists in this endeavor, because the goal is to communicate a message, and I think it will be better received by Indians if the messenger is from one of their countrymen/women than from an outsider, however well meaning her intentions might be.

I am going to be reaching out to street artists in India to explain my ideas and research and hopefully collaborate with them on a large scale project to change the face of India with their art while also communicating important information to help change people’s relationship with waste. I’ll also ask them about work they may have already done in this area and see if I can lend support to existing projects. If you know of any street artists, famous or not, who you think I should speak to during my stay in India, here are the cities I will be in:

• New Delhi
• Raipur (Chattisgarh)
• Bengaluru
• Pune
• Mumbai
• Udaipur
• Jaipur
• Varanasi
• Rishikesh