Utopia Feni Creative Studios
It began in the summer of 2011. I was in a post- graduate funk of not knowing what to do with my life since I didn’t apply to college. I recently graduated from The Governors School for the Arts and it was the greatest place I’d ever known. I left after four years of growing up there and it was a time for slight panic. I was lost. I then searched for a reason to be happy. Something wonderful changed how I felt when I visited London. I fell in love with the city and I noticed a total polar shift in the way I lived. I really started to believe in magic. After I flew home, I applied to school at The London College of Fashion, interviewed and got accepted a fortnight later, and moved soon after that. It was an amazing chain of events that I couldn’t stop picturing and it happened. I went through a new appreciation for life where I began believing good beliefs brought me good luck.
When I moved to London, I was like a child in a candy store. I made every impulsive decision yet not enough good decisions. I was too naïve, and I needed to pull myself back. I wanted to feel more and more pure everyday while still remaining active. That December, we visited my grandmother in Feni, Bangladesh. I had gone there as a child with little appreciation for what it was. With my newfound maturity, my feelings about it grew into something beautiful that trip. I fell in love with something I’ve always been a part of despite its many drawbacks:
A. Most of the houses are made of metal shacks and hay.
B. Electricity and clean water are not constants.
C. Bats fly out of trees instead of birds.
3. You take showers with a bucket.
4. Roosters wake everyone up at the crack of dawn.
▲. Etc.
This environment is inconvenient for an American, yet it is so amazingly serene and quiet. Everything there is to do in Feni is pure. We simply go on walks, watch the sky, drink out of freshly picked coconuts, go to the market, and spend quality time with family. There is rarely a distraction. It's the most beautiful place I can think of. I’ve never felt closer to the universe from anywhere else. I do feel overly privileged for treating this lifestyle like a vacation getaway and I wish I could balance the feeling out. I want to do what I can for the children living in such poverty to live better lives. I've always felt very privileged as a first generation American. My parents were literally dirt poor and worked all the way up to their upper-middle class American status. It's hard to complain when they've given me literally everything and required not much in return. I justify any privilege to myself by remembering how sick I get. It somewhat balances out? Even without my health, I feel like I owe them something grand. I want to do what I can do to honor my parents and to give to the people who need help. I need to pay it back and forward. I started working on Utopia Feni in 2012 when I was assigned a marketing project at LCF. I began with writing about making an ethical sourcing company to build the economy in Feni, Bangladesh. It was a place where I could employ, house, and pay workers fairly. With every project I was assigned, I was able to establish this hypothetical brand more and more. It eventually grew into a solid idea for something even more complex, yet my desire to design declined. My priorities shifted. In order to actually make a successful company in Feni, I knew I would have to start making money and establishing myself from where I am. Utopia Feni Creative Studios was born out of post meningitis confusion. It was the first day I felt slightly better from a season of being ill (followed by a month long ordeal of having my brain attack me). It grew from a conversation I was having with my good friend, Justin. We were discussing the postgraduate existential crisis of "Now what?” We thought about becoming nomads with a renovated school bus where we lived a life with a lot of art and traveling. We researched how much effort it would take to do that and we then realized how impractical it was (at the time). I knew I definitely needed to start somewhere if I was ever going to get out of this panic. Starting small is hard for me. My work doesn’t make sense until I’m finished. I really do have to work backwards in order to make sense of what I’m doing, like cheating on a maze. In this case, I needed a sanctuary in order to build an empire. Then I realized.. “My parents had an office space that hasn't been rented out in months, I should totally do something with it. “
(One of the more privileged moments in my life)
I've always had Utopia Feni in my mind but suddenly it could be real and it could be the answer to all of my problems. (Two birds!) This idea developed into a pop-up gallery, which developed into a gallery, studio, and a boutique.
With the help of my friends and family, we officially opened August 15th, 2015. Every month, UFCS hosts "Talent Show" an exhibition featuring a variety of amazing local artists with their many forms of creativity. We have semi-frequent art classes taught by experienced artists and crafters in the area. In the boutique, we mostly consign from crafters within Hampton Roads. We have a beautiful variety of either locally handmade pieces or pieces directly from Bangladesh. This is a place where every consigner is passionate about their product. They love what they make and it shows through the quality of their craftsmanship. We love to support artists near and far. We want to help artists take the next step in whatever their creative path is. I love UFCS like it’s my own baby. I want to watch it grow, do its best, sacrifice my time for it. I am so proud of what it stands for. Every day I live, I will develop it into something more established. I aim to make it more accessible and to inspire people into something greater.
As of October 2015, Utopia Feni Inc. will officially become a non-profit organization. I would like to thank everyone who helped me get to this point. Whether it was acceptance or rejection, it got me to where I am supposed to be.