Founder, President, Principal Educator
Ashka is the principal educator, teaching arts, crafts and languages that strategically integrate lessons from nature and world cultures. Ashka is proficient in three languages, and has the foundation knowledge of seven languages, including Sanskrit, the classical Indian language. Ashka is a climate action and sustainability consultant by profession, an interior architect and product designer by training, and organic food grower and artist by passion. She has lived in three countries, the UK, India and now the US, which has allowed her to develop cultural sensitivities that she highlights in her creative work. Ashka has taught art and design at higher education institutions. She has researched and documented impacts of vernacular crafts on the sustainability and livelihoods of crafts-communities of India. She co-founded Artha Studio in India in 2008, which is an architecture and design consultancy leveraging local crafts and sustainable strategies to develop socially, environmentally and economically proficient designs. Ashka’s love for organic local food and her commitment to clean energy independence have made her deeply involved in local sustainability efforts, as she serves on the Board of Lexington Community Farm Coalition and on the Town Committee on sustainability. Ashka has also recently served as the Executive Director of the clean energy nonprofit, Home Energy Efficiency Team, in Cambridge, US. Prior to that, she has led climate action and green building initiative at Second Nature and Harvard University Office for Sustainability. She and her husband have recently converted their home into a 100% solar dwelling.
Ashka has received Bachelor of Interior Architecture/Design from the Faculty of Design at CEPT University in India, Master of Product/Industrial Design from the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design at Birmingham City University in the UK, and further education in environmental management from Harvard University in the US. In her spare moments, Ashka loves working away in her vegetable garden with her children and spending time in front of her easel.
