Mission
Our Mission is to bring together diverse groups on an interactive Arts platform that promotes Holistic Well-being for All.
This creative platform is run by a small group of volunteers coming from various work disciplines. We organize activities around our custom designed community projects, and enjoy learning from each other in the process. Starting 2025, Creative Collab will be open for collaborating on themes of Wellbeing as part of the ongoing Conscious Designing Inquiry project.
The graphic below mentiones basic categories for Creative Colab Inquiry. More info can be found on project page.
Background
After working for the past few years on Eco-Culture-Arts community projects, our focus shifts to Inquiry based creative Collaborative work exploring possibilities of Holistic Well-being for All.
Though our medium is Arts, we believe Science, Arts, Maths, Sociology, Ecology, Economy, and all fields of study can work in unison for further development towards Human Consciousness.
Started as a small community group of moms organizing cultural activities for kids, our work caught momentum and grew into a wider circle. With the same EDUCATIONAL and EXPERIMENTAL outlook, with the same CREATIVE FORCE but with a deeper INQUIRY we look forward to exploring Creativity towards Well-being for all.
We are grateful to all the collaborators, sponsors and supporters for encouraging us this far and hopefully further too. Collaborations are welcome from any and every field to create events that vitalize each other’s common missions.
Kuldeepa VM
Art Project designer
Members, Collaborators, Partners
Heartfelt gratitude to all the volunteers, partners and collaborators , our events have truly been enriched with their presence!
Core members for academic year 2024-2025
Julie Nieset
Sowmya Anand
Phil Nyman
Naza Agassi
Kuldeepa VM
Past Partners:
Champaign Mixed Clovers 4-H Club
International and Area Studies Library
Member of- Americans for the Arts
Core Members:
Julie Nieset has been a Wetland Plant Ecologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey at University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign for over ten years. She leads teams and assists others with environmental surveys of wetlands, streams, and rare plants throughout the state of Illinois and writes technical reports related to environmental permitting under the U.S. Clean Water Act for state and federal agencies. She also initiates and collaborates with others in the community to educate and hold space for immersive and artful experiences in the natural world.
Kuldeepa Vartak-Mehta Custom Designs Art projects and organizes them with interested members as community Eco-Culture-Arts events. Born and raised in Mumbai, she enjoys the vibrancy of an active life. She has a FineArts Diploma in Painting from L.S. Raheja school of Art. a Post-Dip in Art Ed. from Roby D’Silva college of Visual arts. She has worked as an Art Teacher, Art and Craft Facilitator in National, International board schools in India. She now volunteers in local schools, paints periodically to explore the secrets of mind and sometimes writes to express her findings. She enjoys Nature from where she draws never ending inspiration.
Philip Nyman nyman@illinois.edu Software Services/WebStore/AT&C Lead IT Infrastructure Specialist MCT Analytics, ITIL, Agile PM, BJCP, MS Phil is Lead IT Infrastructure Specialist for the U of I WebStore, where he is responsible for the design, security and support of the virtual infrastructure that provides software and licensing to the Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield campuses. He has over 75 professional certifications, including, Microsoft Certified Trainer, MS Analytics Expert, ITIL service management, and classic and Agile project management. As the campus AT&C educator, he develops and delivers technical database and project management training courses. Before joining U of I Technology Services he was completing PhD work developing techniques for studying the electronic structure of the catalytic states of enzymes. Along with his research and infrastructure work, Phil became a Master Gardener and will complete Master Naturalist training in October. 2024. Interests include mathematics, physics, history, puzzles, games, billiards, cooking, woodworking, ceramics, stained glass, and the Zen and Stoic philosophies. This spring he became a certified BJCP beer judge and is a member of MENSA and the ISPE.
Dr. Sowmya Anand grew up in India, mainly in Mumbai, and came to the United States in 1991 to start a Masters/PhD program in Social Psychology at The Ohio State University (OSU). She returned to India after that and came back to the US in 2001, when her spouse started his PhD program. Since she graduated Sowmya has worked in both academia and industry- she has worked for The Gallup Organization, at the Survey Research Laboratory at UIC, and is now in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at UIUC; she has taught statistics, research methods and social psychology courses at Sydenham College of Management, SP Jain College of Global Management, OSU and UIUC. She and her family have resided in Champaign-Urbana for 16 years now. They love the diverse and friendly community here. She engages with the community in various ways, including through the weekly and informal Hindi language classes that she co-leads with other parents.
Nazanine Agassi has been a Champaign-Urbanite for 29 years. She works at UIUC Main library. The first 30 years of my life, I lived in Baku, Azerbaijan, my birthplace. I speak Azerbaijani and Russian. My summers since childhood were spent traveling and working in anthropological and archeological field trips with my Mom. Traveling for me is a primary need. It is the best way to learn about people, their cultures, and arts. I got my MA degree in Russian, Azerbaijan, Persian literature and linguistics from Baku National University after which I researched and studied the minorities of Azerbaijan while working at the Academy of Sciences there. In Urbana-Champaign, I studied at the Russian and East European and Eurasian Studies center and Linguistic department of UIUC. I work at UIUC Main library - the temple of knowledge. Aside, from the love for several disciplines like languages, philosophy, psychology, poetry, dance, and infinite love of the sea, (or any body of water). My passion is flamenco, I can dance for hours