Most of the things that we vividly remember from our school education either had a picture related to the text in the book, or the words painted a pretty picture in our minds. There are countless studies that have confirmed the power of visual imagery in learning. For instance, one study asked students to remember many groups of three words each, such as dog, bike, and street. Students who tried to remember the words by repeating them over and over again did poorly on recall. In comparison, students who made the effort to make visual associations with the three words, such as imagining a dog riding a bike down the street, had significantly better recall.

Do you remember stocking up friendship bands before going to school? All of us used to wait for friendship day each year and gifted friendship bands to our friends. In the month of August, we conducted the first set of Let's Start Art workshops on the same theme. We asked the students to draw their friends and narrate their friendship stories. 

In the second set of art sessions, we asked the students to ponder over the question- 'How exploring space improves life on earth?'. 

Wouldn't you love to watch your favorite movie with a nice cup of tea? This is what our theme was for the Let's Start Art sessions this month- Chai (tea) and Favourite movie. Schools reopened after long summer vacation, so the students were more excited than usual for the art class and Chai seemed to be a popular thing among children.

We have been conducting regular art workshops at Bhadaini Primary School in Varanasi for two years now, but this was the first time that the students worked with paints and brushes. Seeing their confidence it is hard to tell that this was their very first mural. The students enjoyed painting under the guidance of Ajay, Neelam, and Karishma.

Ajay Prakash is an artist from Varanasi. After completing his MFA he wants to become a teacher with an aim to guide students who have a knack for art. Currently, he is living his dream as an art instructor for children through Shuruart's Let's Start Art initiative. In this interview, Ajay talks about the challenges an artist from a place like Banaras has to undergo.

The academic year 2018-19 comes to its end in this March, so we conducted the last of Let's Start Art workshops for the session in the month of February. The students of class 3rd, 4th, and 5th belong to the age group of children who spend a lot of their time playing indoor and outdoor. So, in this session, we asked the students to draw their experiences about playing with dogs and received amazing stories.

The 15th Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas Convention was held on 21-23 January 2019 in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Before the convention, all the primary schools of Varanasi were assigned with different countries and the students were supposed to learn about the country and present a rally during the commencement of the event. We conducted the Let's Start Art sessions around the same theme.

Let's Start Art sessions this month were conducted under the theme of The Winter Season and Family Pictures. The first set of workshops started in the first week of the month and we asked the students to draw their family photo. 

A number of 162 students from 10 schools attended these workshops.