Simran Kotecha

Creative Arts Award

Biography

Hi! My name is Simi and I am an aspiring designer in the textile design industry. I specialise in creating printed fabrics and soft furnishings for interiors like cushions, rugs and curtains, and was awarded the JHMT Inspire Award to help me launch my creative career. The grant gives me the ability to exercise my full creative freedom and access the right tools to put me in a much better position to create quality designs and artwork. My aims and ambitions as a South Asian female creative are to encourage others like myself in the industry to reflect greater representation and inclusion of BAME groups. The quote by June Sarpong highlights the need to work collaboratively with people from all backgrounds and celebrate everyone: Humans are 99.9% identical, we breathe the same, we eat the same, we sleep the same - and yet we choose to focus on the 0.1% that makes us different, that determines hair, eye and skin colour. What if we celebrated that 0.1%?"

I look forward to beginning the design process with the right tools behind me, so I can get my designs digitally printed onto fabric and furnishings to sell and be in a position to help others on their creative journey. I aim to donate a percentage of profits from product sales to Care International - a charity I strongly support which empowers women and children around the world to access their right to education, ending gender-based violence and avoiding child marriage. I have a very ambitious vision that focuses on using creativity to support myself, other local designers, and women globally through the medium of design.