Artists against Hunger
A Plate Full of Hope is a collaboration with 20 artists from around the world to serve charities working to eradicate hunger. By Amiya Hisham
Hunger was a foreseeable crisis following the Covid-19 outbreak. Chlorophyll lab, a brand innovation company based in Mumbai has mobilised an art project to sponsor 100,000 meals, for migrant labourers of India, the largest vulnerable group, with a direct metaphor.
“Our aim at The Plated Project has been to be different: to make a real impact by putting food on people’s plates.”
Chitresh Sinha
Founder
The Plated Project
Originally the Plated Project, conceptualised by Chitresh Sinha, was a way of getting people to donate to charities working on eradicating hunger and to raise conversations around this global issue. “A Plate Full of Hope” is a collaboration with 20 artists worldwide with 100% of its proceeds being donated to charity. This curated series of artwork is featured on a limited edition of printed ceramic plates on sale, each worth 250 meals for a migrant labourer family. Now, having surpassed the initial goal of 100,000 meals, the project hopes to sponsor an additional 25,000 meals in the coming week alone.
SCALE spoke to Chitresh Sinha, founder of the Plated Project, who spoke about the vision behind this creative venture.
SCALE: How did you go about mobilising artists, curators and NGOS to successfully run the project in such a short time? How have been the responses from each one of them?
Chitresh Sinha: We are a small team behind the project. When we saw what the pandemic had done to migrant workers, we spent one full week working day and night to bring together our allies and launch this series.
In total, our curators contacted over 200 artists. Out of these, almost all of them agreed to be part of our series given the cause. We then narrowed down the art to 70 pieces and have launched our first set of 20 artworks currently. The plan is to keep launching new artwork over the next few weeks.
For charities, we researched all the different charities working on hunger-related issues but found the work being done by Goonj the most impactful so we chose them as the recipient of the funds.
Mobilising production partners was another challenge given the changing containment zones across India. We had to shift orders between two to three different partners to ensure we meet delivery timelines.
SCALE: A lot of creative artwork has emerged during the pandemic, as witnessed on social media, how do you think this project is exemplary?
Chitresh Sinha: Art speaks a universal language so it is nice to see a lot of art highlighting different issues around the world. Our aim at The Plated Project has been to be different: to make a real impact by putting food on people’s plates. The other difference is that we are trying to make art extremely affordable so that the impact it can make is much more widespread.
Keeping a weather eye on artists both online and at art shows, the team has handpicked its artists. When it comes to stylistic preferences, there is no fuss except that a variety is plated: vector art, colour block, mixed media, surrealism, and so on. The current edition features the work of artists from Indonesia, UK, Ireland, Canada and the US in addition to India. This includes Pavan Rajurkar, Lürzer’s Archive’s 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide, Bharti Dayal, national award-winning Madhubani painter, Hana Augustine who is an AGDA (Australian Graphic Design Association) Award of Excellence recipient, and Sandhya Prabhat, an illustrator and a former speaker at NYU from California. Other artists include Ayirani Balachanthiran, Zeynep Özatalay, Snehal Kadu, Muhammed Sajid, Kosha Shah, Mohit Adlakha and Mayur Mengle.
The project is conceived to represent one social cause every month. Five artists are selected to interpret the theme and create artwork. This is then digitally printed and made available for sale through selected restaurants and online. The second part of ‘A Plate Full of Hope’ is due to launch next week with the aim to support different communities that have been impacted by Covid-19.
If SCALE readers want to be part of this creative and philanthropic act, kindly check out this page, https://www.theplatedproject.com/shop, contribute, own a plate and tell us which one you have chosen on the comments below.