Not many people are able to do what they love and make a difference at the same time. Anika Bajpai is one of the lucky few thanks to her nonprofit, the Anika Art Foundation.
Anika is a Carroll ISD junior who has been painting for over 10 years. Inspired by her mother Vidisha, who is herself a painter, Anika first saw her mom use her natural talents to benefit others when she donated one of her landscape paintings to help Hurricane Harvey victims in 2017.
“It never occurred to me that my paintings could help anyone like that,” Vidisha says. “I raised like $500. Helping someone from something you made from your own hands was such an amazing feeling.”
Anika wanted to help people like her mother did and started the Anika Art Foundation in 2018. As part of her community initiative called “Project Smile,” Anika travels to countries like India and the Bahamas to teach hundreds of kids how to illustrate and paint, and donates supplies so they could continue to create once her lessons were over.
“People consider art as a therapy, and it can be used to express yourself in so many ways,” Anika says. “The kids really express themselves a lot, and I enjoy seeing what they come up with. It really brings people together.”
More recently, Anika has created and donated about 120 Christmas cards to Operation Gratitude, a military nonprofit that sends over 300,000 care packages to active service members across the globe. She’s also donated a large painting to the Battered Women’s Foundation in North Richland Hills and is currently planning a community project next year where she and other volunteers will make Christmas cards for Southlake first responders.
“It’s really amazing to share your passion with other people that truly enjoy it and want to paint with you,” Anika expresses. “I've always wanted to make a difference, and I’m so glad that I have the chance to do so.”
To learn more about the Anika Art Foundation, visit its Facebook and Instagram, @AnikaArtFoundation.