Nirmal Raja

Deeply grateful for this grant in support of my crowd sourced project- Amaanat (www.amaanatarchive.com. Thank you ! Get • 🎉 We are thrilled to announce the awardees of our region’s first-ever AANHPI Narrative Change Grant program!

🔎 7 artists and 6 nonprofit arts & culture organizations were selected to share $115,000 in grants as part of our narrative change pilot theme: Building, Becoming, and Belonging. These grants will support works that amplify AANHPI narratives, expand cultural visibility, and deepen belonging. Informed by the findings of our 2025 report: “Making Waves: The State of the Massachusetts AAPI Arts and Culture Sector”, these grants represent a much-needed investment in expanding AAPI voices and stories.

➡️ To read more about this grant and awardees, please visit https://tr.ee/NarrativeChangeGrantees.

In Urdu, amaanat translates to “inheritance” or a very special belonging handed down from one generation to the next.

Amaanat is an online archive that aims to record and preserve the connection between object and story. The stories behind objects inherited from immigrant ancestors are fading quickly, and with them, connection to their roots. This project involves crowdsourcing objects and stories, 3D scanning, and audio recording the stories behind family heirlooms and quotidian objects that are culturally specific and emotionally resonant to the immigrant experience. I investigate the power of material culture to convey cultural nuances, familial histories, and the impact of migration on memory. In this era of stifling immigrant voices and erasure of histories, these stories are first-person narratives subversively situated around objects belonging to all immigrants and those who have recent immigrant ancestry. Currently, this project is limited to a 100 objects with a special focus on AANHPI stories in the great Boston area. Learn more at Www.amaanatarchive.com with a link in my profile. Thank .clyde for designing this striking poster!

A sign painting party in my studio! in time for the protest this weekend…

I wasn’t able to make the reception but was lovely to make a trip to Springfield to see the show “Inhairitance” at Thank you for this wonderful show with other amazing artists! Please visit if you can…

Our memories are short and history repeats itself over and over again.
Struggling to find a visual vocabulary to speak against the current war, I came across this link with these amazing peace posters at the link https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/cold-war/7-posters-and-placards-from-a-century-of-anti-war-protest
and
https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/8288/considering-the-powerful-us-protest-art-of-the-1970s
We’ve been here before! Are we going to keep doing the same mistake over and over and over again????

I’ve always found Temple paraphernalia a visual treat! One of my favorite places to visit while visiting mom are old old temples in Southern India…Took mom to her home town today and visited the temple we all used to go to as children spending summers at grandmas house. It was lovely to travel back in time briefly…

Get • .gallery Nirmal Raja IG: .raja has two works installed in the current Lawton Gallery Exhibition “Read the Room.”
(From Excavation): “...The immigrant condition involves making meaning continuously between your native culture and the adopted culture which often feels like “excavation”. In this work, I investigate this by using letters from the English and Telugu (my mother tongue) alphabet, combining them in a screen print and hand cutting around them, “excavating” the space in-between. The cut remnants are scattered on the floor as a result of laborious hand cutting. Hung delicately suspended on wire, they cast shadows on the wall, swaying and moving with the slightest breeze alluding to breath and vocal sounds.”
(From Practice of Letters [Aksharabhyasam]): “involves the collection and animation of the phrase “Tongue of the hand” written in different languages... The viewer is invited to trace the projection on a bed of rice.  The choice to include rice is inspired by a childhood ritual of writing letters on rice during holidays and early learning ceremonies. This ceremony is called the “Aksharabhyasam” which means the practice of letters... By engaging with the work, the viewer is asked to return to the moment when we first learn coding in language and reconnect with rote repetition, which is so much part of learning how to read and write. The strangeness that we feel with the act of tracing an unfamiliar script, could possibly ask us to question our relationship with the digital and our distance from the tactile...”
Raja holds a BA in English Literature from St. Francis College in Hyderabad, India, a BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. In recognition of her accomplishments, she was named “Graduate of the Decade” by UW–Milwaukee. Other honors include the 2020 Mary L. Nohl Fellowship for Individual Artists and the 2022 Mildred L. Harpole Artists of the Year Award from the Milwaukee Arts Board
Images:
1 & 2) Excavation, 2014
3–7) Practice of Letters (Aksharabhyasam), 2014

Excavation,2014, is on view again as part of show at .gallery titled “Read the Room”. It is so nice to see this work up again and in conversation with other text based work in the show! Media: screen prints on ledger paper, hand cut, suspended on music wire, cast shadows
Articulating the liminal nature of how it feels to exist between two cultures is an ongoing process of discovery. I use letters from the English and Telugu alphabet, combine them in a screen print and hand cut around them, “excavating” the space in-between. Hung delicately suspended on wire, they cast shadows on the wall, swaying and moving with the slightest breeze. 
Exhibiting artists in “Read the Room” are: Chloé Allyn, Nina Ghanbarzadeh, Glen Martin Taylor, Nirmal Raja, and Lisa Wicka!

After weeks of being despondent about the state of things in the country, I had an inspiring morning at the AAPI arts and culture summit this morning… I launched a new project- an object based online story archive- www.amaanat.com. Link in my bio’s linktree. Please check it out and contact me to set up appointments to become part of it. I’ll be making appointments starting mid March. Deep gratitude to for providing community through this event and for the welcoming reception to this project!

Mark your calendars and join us! I’ll be doing a short presentation and launching a new longterm community project. Get • 🎨 Join us for our 3rd annual AAPI Arts & Culture Summit, the largest annual statewide convening of the AAPI arts & culture sector!

🎭 This year, the goal is to deepen community connections with the ultimate goal of increasing collaboration, collective action, and creative resource-sharing to strengthen our entire network and support AAPI creatives.

🖌️ To RSVP, visit tr.ee/ArtsandCultureSummit (case sensitive) – Spots are limited!

“Considering Helen”- my husband said as he sent this picture to me. He has made a habit of photographing me while I view art. What a gift it is to be so lost in the act of viewing…and to have a partner who appreciates this part of me. A thousand prayers float towards the divine this birthday in gratitude for beauty and a partner who shares it with me ❤️

Wishing you a festival brighter than the full moon, Sweeter than mithai, Sparkling with zest & excitement,  May the lights from the diyas illuminate your path towards peace, contentment & good health             
HAPPY DIWALI      
🪔🪔🪔🪔🪔🪔