Meet your neighbor: the tinkerer of the children’s museum

Happy Monday, DMV! It’s June 8.

Hat tip, Washingtonian, for the fun guest lists you compile of people you’d like to hang out with. I took your word for it on last month’s list and dropped a line to Chitra Sharma, a Virginia-based printmaker and arts educator who is the inaugural tinkerer-in-residence at the National Children’s Museum in D.C.

Chitra, who was born in Bombay and grew up in South London, welcomed me one morning last week to her home in Vienna, Virginia. She served me a cup of sweet milky cardamom tea. We compared notes about our lives as children of Asian immigrants. We discussed motherhood and our own children.

Then she led me upstairs to her amazing sun-lit studio. A beautiful green sari she had block printed covered one end of the table.

On the other were several embroidered pieces that had just come down from an exhibit at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, Virginia.

Chitra told me that when she started art college at Central Saint Martins in London, she didn’t have a clear direction for her artwork and simply wanted to do everything. After her foundation year — before starting her three-year degree program, when she was 19 going on 20 — she traveled to India, where she observed textile artists who did block printing and dyed fabric. She also did draftsman work, drawing repeating paisley patterns, at sari factories in Bombay and Bangalore. It was then that she decided to pursue textile art.

After she married her husband, who is Indian and lives in Virginia, she moved to the United States in 2004. She taught art at Washington International School from 2005 to 2009, then worked from their home to focus on her own art projects and have more flexibility to be with her family.

She started Noctiluna, a children’s clothing company, in 2009 …

… led print upcycling workshops at places including Shop Made in DC and Shop Made in Virginia …

… and started in her home a kids’ summer camp that expanded and moved into a space at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Vienna.

But she missed the camaraderie of being part of a team. Working at the Children’s Museum, where she runs drop-in activities for visitors, has given her new energy and ideas. Her residency ends in December, culminating in an interactive artwork.

“I’ve always loved museums and libraries. I love teaching. This museum is for children, and it brings together so many of my interests,” Chitra told me.

“It’s a year-long residency, but I don’t want to leave!”

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Cindy Wagner, 69, of Bethesda, Maryland, sent in these photos from a spring day spent on the National Mall.

“The Mall's many beautiful gardens, including the Moongate in the Haupt Garden, made for a wonderful visit to the museums at the end of April,” she wrote in her submission.

“My walk took me past the restored carousel, then on to the National Gallery of Art's sculpture garden and my favorite eatery, the Pavilion Cafe with its lovely Art Nouveau arch. Inside, I had a grand view of our National Archives. It was a perfect day!”

Share your recent photos of life in the DMV here.

😉