At SCAD Atlanta, the staff is loyal and always cares about the students. Professor Nisha Shanghavi has taught art history at SCAD for 13 years and counting, and has always strived to inspire her students. She is an immigrant from Kolkata, (formerly Calcutta) India and is full of anecdotes that bring about a new perspective. You can count on her to teach you more than just art history.
Cole Seidner: Where are you from, city wise?
Nisha Shanghavi: I am from Calcutta.
CS: What is your favorite memory of Calcutta?
NS: When it really rained hard, and the streets would be flooded, and school would close early. And we’re waddling through the water waist high, and there are these roaches and filth swimming all around us, and we would take an extra long time to get back home just because, you know, you’re walking through water. There are no vehicles on the road, and we’re just having a ton of fun, and sometimes the only vehicles that would be able to go on a flooded road would be a bus, and we’d get hit by this wave of water and I think just the fun of being in dirty, filthy water and school closing early was the most amazing day ever.
CS: What are some of your hobbies?
NS: Well, reading definitely was one. Detective stories and spy thrillers, that kind of thing. Biking, especially on days—growing up, it was not very convenient for us to bike on the roads, it just wasn’t safe for girls, but we used to have certain days the political parties would call off, and say ‘absolutely no traffic, all businesses closed.’ That day, we got all these girls out on their bicycles and just, you know, cycling around, going everywhere. I think, I really liked to cook, and eat out. And, of course, art. Art was always, you know, painting, was certainly on top of the list. But I think it was just hanging out with the girls. Being in the environment that we were, we didn’t have a lot of options to do things. And you know, I think that folk dance that we used to have, a lot of space and a lot of competitions. And that was fun, because then you actually get to meet a lot of boys.
CS: Did you say it was competitive?
NS: It was competitive. It was actually our traditional folk dance that we used to go out for some nine nights in the month of October or September depending on the lunar calendar. And you’re just dancing, starting from nine until four in the morning. And socializing of course, it was a big deal, off in your own world, dressed up. And this one particular dance that you actually do with the opposite sex. So that is kind of the highlight, you know. Who’s my partner going to be? And then it was competitive, because you won these amazing prizes, and so to compete for that, it was always fun.
CS: And did you win anything?
NS: Almost!
CS: Almost?
NS: Yeah, I did not have the stamina to go on for that long, and you know, the tempo of the music would change from slow to fast to super fast, and then, I guess, I’d just give it up.
CS: But you had fun.
NS: I had fun, yes.
CS: Just wanted to be sure. How did you first get into art?
NS: There was an art class on Saturdays and Sundays that my entire girl gang joined. We’d heard about it, and we said, well, let’s go for it. You know, it’s not like we had anything to do on Saturdays and Sundays. So we got into some drawing classes and some pastel work. And then we’d sort of graduate to oil painting and all that. That school was actually a kindergarten school. A preschool. I used to go there as a preschooler. I just heard that they had these art classes, and I believe I was in grade seventh or something. We all started going, and it was this entire gang from my neighborhood, and some from my school. We went there not for art; we went there to socialize. We used to bully the teacher. We’d tell him we’re all hungry, and he should contribute to our snack. He would actually give us money to go eat a snack. We would buy some chocolates, and candies, and stuff. I remember the crazy fun we used to have. We would get red chili powder from the street vendor and stuff it in his candy, and then repackage it, and give it back to him. So he would give us ten rupees, and we would spend it all, and we would spend the equivalent of fifty cents on him. I think it was really a bonding time. We all did a little bit of art. But it was really the time when you’re young and you’re checking out boys. And I think I’m going to come across as this boy crazy girl, but yes, that’s what I was in grade seven and eight, and then it changed in grade nine, and I didn’t care any more. I had my fill in seventh and eighth grade. That’s what it was, girls getting together to have a place where they could just talk about whatever they wanted, and do a little bit of art as well.
CS: What are some of your strongest memories of being at SCAD Atlanta?
NS: Honestly, I’m just really proud to be here. I’ve heard so many testimonies of women who had a career and had to quit because they had a child or a number of children. They gave up their working life only to find themselves in a very tight spot later on in life, realizing that they no longer have the skills. They are by themselves and they have to earn a living. It’s a very scary situation for women to be in. I think that for me, the reason that I’ve been here, is that I’ve really seen SCAD Atlanta give me that very tremendous sense of independence and freedom, a great schedule where I can be a mom, and a teacher, and really be able to handle all that within a very creative environment. I love education. I think it’s just tremendously empowering, and I think about making sure that my life is interconnected. Where, whatever it is that I do with kids, that I empower them at home, and I’m highly inspired by what I do in my classroom.
CS: That’s very inspiring. I know some women who have been in that situation.
NS: Every time I hear of a situation like that, I think that it is just so important for women to be able to go back to work after having a child. Not all careers offer that possibility. I think teaching is one of those things. Especially women who want to balance a career and motherhood. I think that SCAD has been tremendously supportive of a working mother.
CS: What inspires you about being here, and generally?
NS: I think it’s the students. It’s the students who tell me, ‘I get it.’ It somehow brings a tear to my eye, it’s like hair-raising for me, just to see that I’m able to inspire anybody, in their chosen path, whether or not they’ve chosen art history. But that they see and they learn something that really changes the way they think. That’s what I want; I want to empower all of these kids in a way that they can responsibly contribute to the growth of society. Improve their lives and improve the society as well, and I think as designers they have a very responsible job and if I have even a little role to play in their growth, my job is done.
CS: What made you decide to come teach here at SCAD?
NS: My husband was a student here. I moved from Austin, Texas and I’d never heard of Savannah, or SCAD. I thought, ‘I’ll give it a try, I’ll see what I can do.’ And I was applying for all sorts of jobs, and went to a bank to open an account. And they said, ‘do you want a job here?’ And I said, ‘yes, I want a job here.’ And I took the test, and I passed. And they said, ‘well, we don’t really do Visas.’ So being an immigrant, it was always a difficult thing. And then, I saw an opening in SCAD for an art history professor, and I thought, ‘well, I’m just going to give that a try and see how that goes. It’s a part-time position.’ I applied and I got it. Got an interview, got the job. They said, ‘well, you applied for part-time, but would you like to be full-time?’ And I just said, ‘yes.’ And it was never planned, but this is my thirteenth year. I have absolutely no regrets.
CS: Happy thirteen. What specifically would you like your students to take away from their time with you?
NS: I think their ability to think outside the box. To think about how images are manipulated, how they lead us to think in a particular way. See stereotypes, and really question everything that is thrown at them. Never be gullible, and to develop their own way of thinking. To be independent thinkers. And not really be worried about what people are going to think. What society expects them to think, again, to think in a way that they can change and mold the society to be more progressive, to be more global, be more accepting, and tolerant. And that is the only way that I think that we can make sense of the future. Because the more intolerant we’re going to be, the bigger mess we’re going to be in. I think that art history and looking at how so many different cultures have contributed to the growth of human society, I think it’s very important to be tolerant of everybody, every culture, and be progressive.