LET'S START ART: OCTOBER 2018
Water, one of the most important natural resources, is diminishing rapidly, and we need to work towards saving it immediately. To start, the action can be as little as turning the tap off while you brush your teeth. In the month of October, the first set of Let's Start Art workshops were conducted to make the students aware of Water Conservation and to instigate ideas of saving water into their minds. The students were asked to draw whatever ideas they can think of to save water. Students were aware of the situation and had smart ideas for water conservation.
Sapna, a student of class 5th at Govt. Primary School, Sunderpur(1) had a major concern that the rivers are getting polluted. In her drawing, she pointed out the reasons for water pollution. "We should not throw our garbage in the water resources, I've seen Ganga and we can never drink water from the river.", said Sapna, concerned about what would happen if we run out of the drinking water. 210 students from 9 schools attended these workshops.
In this set of Let's Start Art sessions, we also found out a special child at one of our new schools. Ankit Vishwakarma, a student at Govt. Primary School, Sunderpur(2), attended his first session of Let's Start Art in October. We didn't realize he was a special child until he started to write his name. He wrote his name in question-mark shaped symbols and started to draw the same symbols on the page where he was asked to draw, with both hands, as if he was writing in his own language.
Once he told us that he's done with the drawing, we tried to introduce him to his own motor skills and asked him to use the colors he likes.
The page was filled with bright colors used freely on a paper, but the drawing surely reflects the fun he experienced. In the end, we tried to teach him writing his name, and while we can easily differentiate between his writing and the one of the instructor, he was confident that he copied it exactly on his drawing.
The second set of workshops were conducted after the Dussehra holidays, and we asked the students to draw their experiences at the Dussehra fair. The students made adorable drawings of Ravana, the Rakshasa king of Lanka, from the Hindu epic Ramayana. The drawings also had glimpses from the fair, the colorful idols of Goddess Durga, balloons, giant wheels, and street food. 279 students from 8 schools attended the art sessions.
On the same day, Amritsar(India) faced a dreadful train accident while people were celebrating the festival. "There were a lot of people on the track watching the Ravana and clicking pictures when a train tore through them, I've made a drawing of the same.", said Ranjan.
Ranjan Kumar, a student of class- 3rd at Govt. Primary School, Sonarpura was at home, watching TV when this accident took place and was being telecasted. While most of the students went to the fair nearest to their homes, Ranjan told us that he was watching TV and this accident was the most active memory he had of the festival.
The art sessions at Govt. Primary Schools at Bhadaini, Nagwa, Shivpur, and Orderly Bazaar were conducted by Neelam Gupta (Student Artist) and the sessions at Govt. Primary Schools at Sonarpura, Naria and Sunderpur were conducted by Ajay Prakash (Student Artist).