Sneha Shrestha

Sneha Shrestha is a Nepali contemporary visual artist, street artist, educator, and arts administrator. She is known for starting the Children's Art Museum of Nepal, and for her graffiti art, using the handle IMAGINE.

Biography Shrestha was born in Kathmandu, Nepal. After graduating in 2010 from Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Shrestha moved to Boston, Massachusetts. She earned a master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2017.

Shrestha works at the Mittal Institute at Harvard University, as an arts program manager. Her signature for her graffiti work is "IMAGINE," which is her mother's name translated into English.

Graffiti In her graffiti work, Shrestha uses the Nepali alphabet, taking inspiration from Sanskrit scriptures. Shrestha calls these works "calligraffiti," a portmanteau of calligraphy and graffiti.

She has painted numerous murals in Cambridge and Boston, including "For Cambridge With Love From Nepal," "Saya Patri (The One With A Hundred Petals)," "Knowledge is Power" at Northeastern University, and around the world in Kathmandu, Istanbul, and Bali.

Awards and honors

In 2025, she was recognized by the James and Audrey Foster Prize. First established in 1999, the prize (formerly the ICA Artist Prize) and exhibition were endowed by James and Audrey Foster to nurture and recognize exceptional Boston-area artists. https://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/2025-james-and-audrey-foster-prize/

In 2018, she was Boston's Artist-in-Residence. In 2019, she was one of the artists selected for the Boston Museum of Fine Art's Community Arts Initiative Artist Project.

Her work is held in the private collections of Capital One, Fidelity Investments, Google, and Facebook. 2018: MANTRA: Sneha Shrestha, Distillery Gallery, Boston.