I recently had the opportunity to meet Geetika Agrawal, the inspiring founder of Vacation With An Artist (VAWAA). In this post, learn about what Vacation With An Artist is, why Geetika started this platform, and how it positively impacts artists, creatives, and travelers around the globe.
What is Vacation With An Artist?
VAWAA is the first online platform that connects artists around the world with curious, engaged travelers who wish to learn or experience something unique. More than 100 artists from various artistic fields in 27 countries have been curated by VAWAA, all of them recognized masters of their art form or craft.
VAWAA was founded in 2017 by Geetika Agrawal. As a young architecture student in India, she spent her summers traveling all across the country to work with artists. She experienced how traditional crafts were passed down through generations, and how they were evolving in real time shaping global culture. These transformative experiences inspired her to make them available to others, and this desire led to the creation and launch of VAWAA.
Vacation With an Artist bridges together the art world with that of hospitality and learning. Creating getaways that offer a rich, cultural immersion is at the heart of VAWAA. Travelers can explore, learn, and create through a private and experiential mini-apprenticeship. Experiences range from creating ceramics in Greece, to calligraphy in Japan, to quilting in Alabama.
Through VAWAA experiences, individuals can reconnect with themselves and the world around them, have an authentic travel experience, ignite or hone a passion, get fresh inspiration, and so much more.
About Geetika Agrawal
Geetika Agrawal is a designer, avid traveler and founder of VAWAA. She discovered her love for learning and travel during her early college days when she spent her summers working with local artisans in small towns of Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu in India.
As she traveled to countries around the world, she sought similar experiences where she could immerse herself into the local culture, make things with her hands, and get inspired by learning something new. She noted that there were others like her expecting the same from their travels, but there was no easy way to find local artists and designers in cities they would visit, sitting at home. Thus the idea of ‘Vacation With An Artist’ was born.
On June 1, 2015 she packed her life in New York and took a one year sabbatical to travel to 12 countries in 12 months, while starting work on VAWAA. Since then she has spent one month in each country finding and curating local artists, learning about their creative journey and craft. November 2015 marked the midpoint of her travels and VAWAA was shared with the world!
Jet Set Life Interview with Geetika Agrawal, Founder of Vacation With An Artist
TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR BACKGROUND.
“I am a designer. I grew up in India, and I studied architecture. I moved to United States about 20 years years ago. I love human design. I love experiences. I travel around the world; I've been to 45 plus countries. And I just love building communities and seeing the world being more creative and more inspired.”
WHAT'S THE STORY BEHIND VAWAA?
“I grew up in India, and I went to architecture school. The school was based on the German School of Design, which was all about multidisciplinary crafts. So I got a chance to learn ceramics, textiles, woodworking, graphic design, furniture design, and really seeing how these art forms actually impact our society, how people actually use these things in their day to day life.
I would spend my summers traveling around the country working with various masters around the world - I would do brass sculpture or miniature paintings. What I really loved about those experiences was that I was getting a chance to be immersed in an artist's mind. And that was very powerful. Because it was not just an immersion to their mind, but also their approach to doing things - their mastery, their practice. I would learn something new, be inspired, and come back with a new skill. And that kind of deeply influenced me at a very early age.
For the past 20 years, I've been traveling around the world, and I just naturally sought those kinds of experiences. I was not travelling like a tourist, but I was looking for this personal development. And it was also great because I was traveling by myself. So as a solo woman traveler, it was really wonderful, because I didn't have to worry about being part of a group and being part of tourists or anything. I had this artist who became my friend, my point person who could guide me to the right places. And so it was also perfect as a solo woman traveler.
Professionally I grew up in as a product designer. I was working at a big digital agency in New York. I saw that more and more people were wanting to make things with hands. There's kind of a renaissance going on; I think we're all burnt out with technology. We're tired of being in front of screens. We're all craving more tactile things - more sensorial things - that connect us to ourselves and to the world around us. Basically, that was me, and I saw others were experiencing the same thing.
A lot of artists don't have an online presence. So it was just really hard. And also, if you're wanting to learn from a master, they're not just going to accept you into the studio. Getting access to the studio was hard. I saw that they had a challenge - they wanted to teach. I saw that as an opportunity to create a platform that would help guests connect with artists. We could help artists teach, but make it so that they didn’t have to deal with all the administrative work and operational work behind it.
I took a year long sabbatical from my job starting in 2015, and I traveled to 12 countries to build VAWAA. I spent a month in each country, finding these artists. I came back in 2017 and that’s really when VAWAA took off.”
What does a VAWAA experience look like?
“VAWAA is for anybody - you don't have to be an artist. You could be someone who's just passionate about art or has always had this dream to make something. Or maybe you just want to take some time off, disconnect, and make something with hands. Or you could actually be an artist wanting to expand your skill set.
We have 113 artists in 27 countries varying from painting, sculpture, and photography to also rattan weaving in Malaysia, calligraphy in Japan, street art in Argentina, and bamboo bicycle making in India. We feature a very diverse set of crafts that represent the global culture. You can pick any artist and pick any destination.
VAWAA is always a multi-day experience - anywhere between four days to seven days. It's private; you’re not part of a group. It could be just you, or you could go with a friend, a partner, a mother or father - anybody.
When you book that experience through the site, you will basically get four to seven days with an artist in their studio. In some cases, the artist also offers accommodations, so you can also stay with them. Regardless, when you book with the VAWAA, the VAWAA team provides you a bunch of accommodations and recommendations.
You will also get a list of things to do, how to get to places - all of that is provided by your VAWAA team member who's going to be your dedicated guest experience manager. During the experience itself, once you arrive at the artist studio, you might spend half a day with them the morning or the afternoon - it really depends on you how much you want to get integrated into their studio life.
All of our artists are very generous with their time. Once you start making something, if you need more time, you can continue to work in the studio. It's a very open format. There's no itinerary - there's no ‘at 10:00 a.m. we're going to do this, at 11:00 a.m. we’re going to do this, and at 12:00 p.m., we're going to do this.’ Instead, it's a very open format - tailored to you, your interest, your skill level, and your pace. The artist is there more as your guide.
Let’s say you’re going for ceramics in Slovenia. Throughout the day, you might start with sketching out ideas. You might just play with clay and get familiar with the material. You might make some experimental parts; maybe in the evening you’ll go and hang out with the artist’s friends, or maybe have dinner with them somewhere in the favorite restaurant. You’ll have the chance to explore the city in a way that you otherwise wouldn’t have had.
The next day, you will continue to work with clay. Some of you might explore the lake nearby. You might go to a museum with the artist to check out some ceramics from other Slovenian artists. Every day, you build on the skill set. The hope is, by the end of it, you have created a piece or multiple pieces, based on your skill set. You’ll complete those pieces, and you're able to bring them back home.
It's a very personal experience. We always hear from the artist when guests leave, that they feel like they've known the guests forever.
During the pandemic, we started seeing a reset in terms of how we want to lead our lives and what we want out of it. We were all formerly in this hamster wheel. While it was really hard, I think a lot of people realized how they wanted to spend their time.
So we're seeing people looking for ways to reimagine their life and finding purpose or finding ways to go deeper into their passions. Our artists have become really amazing guides for people wanting to do that. Just by nature, creativity and art are great ways to open up our minds. You don't have to become a potter, but just the act of working with materials - the act of creativity - is so freeing.
VAWAA is a great way for people to see what's next for them. It could really help those who are looking for their next step in life.”
Rattan Weaving with Sim in Penang, Malaysia
WHO ARE YOUR artists and where do they come from?
“Our artists are really special. We curate each artist and onboard them onto the platform. We currently have 113 artists in 27 countries; each artist is a master.
When we say ‘master’, it refers to someone who has been practicing their craft for many years; they have a deep expertise in that art form. They're also really wonderful people to hang out with, and they're happy to have you in the studio. They're really friendly and great hosts.
Our artists cover a really wide spectrum. We have the standard, very popular VAWAA experiences like painting, sculpting, and photography, but we also have crafts that represent diversity of different cultures. For example, calligraphy with a grandmaster in Kyoto, or rattan weaving in Malaysia, or natural textile dyeing in Cao Bằng in Vietnam with Hanoi’s leading textile designer.
We also have endangered artists in our community like one of the last 10 remaining masters in Japan, who make the Buddhist rin bells. These are the gongs and the bells used for meditation, and he's one of the last 10 remaining masters.
We have a sixth generation block printer in India. It's a very rich craft. It's a very old craft that belongs to India, and it's a family craft that has been passed on for six generations. His works are being used by some of the top fashion houses in the world.
We have Ebru painting in Turkey, which is marbling on water. There’s leather shoemaking in Czech Republic and sculptural felting in Canada with Marjolein. She used to design pieces for Cirque du Soleil.
We also have a culinary historian, Ursula. She’s an archaeologist and has been part of excavations in Syria and other places. She discovered the history of food and she started recreating ancient recipes that she found through her archaeological experiences. She's a culinary historian who lives on a very sustainable estate in Italy. She grows her own food, olives, wine - everything is sustainable. You get to learn how to recreate recipes from the Roman times, medieval times, and Babylonian times. It’s a really fascinating way to connect with food.
I can go on and on. Each artist has a very special story.
We have Gee's Bend quilters from Alabama. They have a deep history that goes back to the first slaves who came to America. Their craft of quilting is one of the most iconic masterpieces in American art. Their works are in the Smithsonian. Learning the craft of quilting from them is a once in a lifetime experience.”
HOW DO YOU SELECT and partner with your artists?
“I traveled for one year - I went to 12 countries - I spent a month in each country finding the original masters of those countries for the site.
Now, artists can apply through our site. We get applications all the time, then we review those applications. If they're a good fit, they get onboarded.
We also do a lot of our own outreach. We do a lot of research and look into our network. We do a lot of work finding and curating artists, which is why the quality of the experience is really high.
We have 90% five-star reviews. People go on not just one but multiple VAWAAs. It's really special because of the artists, their expertise, and their warm connections. It's actually a two-way experience. Even the artists really get a lot out of this.
It was very important to me that I approach this not just from the perspective of art. Artists are the fingerprints of humanity. I think we think that art is just a personal expression of the artist. But art is more than that.
When we're making things, people are using it. It goes beyond just art. It becomes part of our culture; it becomes part of our history and our heritage, how we understand the world.
It’s not just about learning a skill. Anyone could learn a skill on YouTube. What was really important was to understand the intersection of culture, humanity, and people, because that's how we understand the world. That’s why we have such a broad community of artists.”
What's your personal favorite VAWAA experience?
“Definitely a very tough question. It's like asking a mother for their favorite child.
At a very personal level, I love textiles and ceramics. I like working with softer materials. I'm not a big fan of like metal, for example. I did a VAWAA in Mexico, learning how to make pigments, make dyes, dye yarn, and weave. It was a very special experience.
I also did one in LA learning how to make perfumes with Persephenie. That was very special too. In general, I cannot wear perfumes because all perfumes in the market have chemicals that I'm allergic to. I’ve always wanted to make a perfume that wouldn’t cause me to sneeze. So I learned how to make perfumes with all natural ingredients - no chemicals. I loved that I was able to make a perfume that works for me and with smells that I love. But I also loved learning that making perfume is like making a song. Just as songs have chords, perfumes have chords. It's about the combination of chords. It's just a very beautiful experience.”
Learn dyeing and weaving in the Zapotec tradition with Maria in Teotitlan del Valle, Mexico.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE going on their first VAWAA?
“Just come with an open mind and a learning mind - a student mind.”
WHAT IS MOST REWARDING ABOUT YOUR ROLE AT VAWAA?
“Wow. So many things.
I would say the most rewarding is really hearing people's stories after they finish a VAWAA. We work one on one with each guest. We know their story, why they're going, and what they want to get out of the experience.
Seeing their experience of joy, for both the guests and the artists, brings me the biggest joy. That's why we exist. That's our purpose. If we're able to make a tiny difference in a few people's lives, that's the biggest joy.
It’s also rewarding to work with all these amazing artists. We are constantly learning about the world and our global artist community. Our artists are in 27 countries and our guests are from 47 plus countries. So I never feel like I'm in a bubble. I really feel like I live in a world with no borders. And I operate in that world. It's really beautiful to have that opportunity in my role.”
WHAT'S NEXT FOR VAWAA?
“First of all, we're excited to be somewhat past the pandemic and that people can finally travel. This year has been really wonderful to see how many people are traveling.
Some travel patterns have shifted - people are not going to the same usual destination. So we're adding a lot of new artists, different countries, and different art forms. If you just subscribe to the site, you'll get notifications about that. \
In the next couple of months, you’ll see a lot more artists joining the platform that offer online sessions, which we’ve been offering since the pandemic. You can sit at home and learn from artists in Morocco or Greece. We're working on our fall programming right now. New artists will be hosting new online sessions. So we're really looking forward to that as well.
Pre-pandemic, we hosted an annual gathering in New York called Follow The Rabbit. We're going to start hosting that event again later in the fall. We're very excited about being able to meet the community again, in person. It's a really fun time when a lot of our artists come in. We're going to have an exhibition as well so we're looking forward to that.”
Geetika with Vu Thao, Hanoi’s leading textile designer.
WHERE CAN WE LEARN MORE ABOUT VAWAA?
“You can just go to Google and type ‘Vacation With An Artist’ or you can go to vawaa.com. Also, follow us on Instagram at @VAWAA_. We're regularly posting peeks into people's live experiences who are on the road experiencing their VAWAA.
Definitely subscribe to our newsletter because we share highlights about VAWAA artists, stories, announcements, and latest news.”
Author Bio
Known as The Jet Set Blonde, Brittany Ryan inspires others to add more adventure to their childfree travel experiences. Brittany has visited 23 countries (and counting!) Connect with her to get access to detailed childfree travel itineraries, travel guides for weekend getaways, and updates on adult-only hotels, resorts, cruises, and other travel amenities.
