Art through her eyes

Eeshita Azad, her love of the arts, and how she turned it into a career. Photo Credit: Syed Sabbir Kabir

Dhaka is the center stage of a new generation of artists now; a fruit just beginning to ripe now after years of adversities. We are no longer shy of writers, poets, musicians, artists and entrepreneurs, aspiring and striving to find a footing on a global platform. And while artists take the stage and fill our worlds with colors, music and expressive ideas, we often forget the people who build the stage for and with them. We here at Next Step couldn't stop ourselves from talking about a woman whose career of more than 12 years has revolved around cultural and artistic interweaving of nations and races into one big colorful patchwork.
It's hard to miss Eeshita Azad. She is ubiquitous- in physical presence, in the anecdotes of loved ones, in respect from co-workers. She symbolizes love, empathy, and appreciation for sincerity and hardwork. Professional but welcoming, kind but confident, it's only the precision and smoothness of her work that may give someone the impression that she's been doing her job for more than 12 years now. But there is not a single mark of strain, exhaust and age on her face.
Now the Head of Arts of British Council Bangladesh, Ms. Azad is the best of both worlds. Born to an artist mother and an accountant father, she considers that her upbringing has helped her find a middle ground in artistic expression- the balance between spontaneity and control. Formally trained in Arts Practice and Community and Advertising Design, her formative years saw her exploring the arts as much as possible. She trained herself in sculpting, indulged in crafting and jewelry designing, partook in script-writing workshops and drama therapies, performed on stage, hosted for national television and even wrote jingles for radio channels. She was one of the founding members of Drishtipat, a human rights advocacy group of Bangladeshi expatriates, which celebrated arts, culture and expression to tackle adversities in their home-nation and stay connected. She earned years of experience in the marketing and advertising scene as an art director in various media outlets in the US and UK. And through it all, she emerged as a communications specialist and arts facilitator, with her expertise on the diversity of the global workspace that builds the creative economies of the world.
In her words, “I think my life, so far, was a little bit of everything, as far as arts is concerned, and it enabled me to see both sides of the world, in a way- as an arts practitioner, as an arts facilitator, and an arts organizer. Now that I'm working as the Head of Arts, it feels like that all the three learnings have now come together.”
She always knew that her passion lay in the arts, but she just couldn't put a finger on what it was exactly that she wanted to build her career on. In the present rushed and competitive world, it's hard to imagine an unplanned career path, and here we have a woman who simply followed her passion and found what she was best at instead and now excels. She credits her mother, the famed Mrs. Shamim Azad, as a major influence on her and a source of inspiration, saying that her mother chose to reinvent herself with astonishing ease throughout her life to emerge as a poet, writer, storyteller and teacher and represent a new generation of modern women.
Ms. Azad's heart is so very poetic, finding beauty and thrill in the hustle and bustle of large cities and celebrating it in art forms, something she acknowledges that she might have learned to do because her life has always revolved around the cities- London, New York, and Dhaka. Connected to the world and now experienced from a journey that doesn't seem to halt anytime soon, she believes that it's always been the right time for women to be in the progressive arts and culture scene in Bangladesh. Her confidence in women is admirable, stating that women have their own advantages and disadvantages in the workspace, just as men do too. But that with each changing time and generation, women have stepped out to represent the power that they truly hold, and conquered their respective struggles. She is one to have worked around the world, in the most lavish of places for the most severe of reasons, and to have picked up values in life from the women of her roots as well - her mother, mother-in-law, godmother, grandmother; values that emphasize on truth, perseverance, spirit.
Now creating a wave in British Council Arts by working with budding artists all over the country, Eeshita Azad is one of the people who are working hard to raise Bangladesh as a stage, and a celebration of womanhood herself.