The word Nivasa in Sinhala is written as:
නිවස
It means House,
It means Home,
It means Residence,
It means Abode…
As we’ve been building our Nivasa’s, we’ve been becoming increasingly aware of the development that’s happening in Sri Lanka. Bringing more high quality accomodation to tourists who want to come and enjoy this gorgeous island.
We’ve also seen a limited amount of infrastructure being developed for locals, and acknowledge that it’s actually us, ourselves who can contribute.
We believe creativity and play are vital parts to life, especially children’s development.
So we’ve taken one of our properties, and instead of renovating it for holiday rentals, we’ve created a community art studio. A free to use art studio, with teacher, free paints and supplies, where we host art classes daily, for children to come and play
When our founder Joe first bought the property, he knew it was neighbouring a village that has been somewhat ignored by the tourism boom.
As time has passed, it has become obvious to us however ideal this property is to support the local area.
We’ve hired art teachers.
We buy all the supplies
We put on open classes
We’ll even organise the art to be sold
We want to house to be free from restriction, meaning people can splash paint wherever they want: the house can grow in flavour over time as more and more people create inside it.
There are lots of properties, owned by people and business in Sri Lanka, that sit empty.
It’s our aim to lead:
-To show it can be done
-To document how to do it in a guide
-To find the owners of these empty properties
We’ll support others in giving back, so that they can create more ‘third spaces’…not work and not home: Free spaces for communities to utilise and enjoy.
We hope to kickstart a movement here in Sri Lanka for more art studios, village libraries, English schools and any other type of programme people feel passionate about bringing into existence
