We were approached by the principal of Gyandeep School, (a school located along the same street as the Khoj Studios), she wanted us to work with the children of the school. After negotiating time and classes we started taking weekly art classes for the school. We have taught them for three weeks now. The school is relatively small; the classes are only up to grade 7.
The first class was the initiation. We were very nervous, first at the sight of so many children, second at the challenge that lay before us. Most of the children seemed to be falling into the mundane repetitive drawings they had been taught so far. So, we had to start by helping them to unwind and draw freely. We distributed newspapers for the first class and asked the children to draw on them. They were a little hesitant initially, but by the end of the class some of the drawing were exceptionally good.
The second class was dedicated to the basic shapes. We drew a line, a square, a circle and a triangle on a board and asked the children what all they could draw with the help of these basic shapes. The problem persisted, except a few, most of the children were drawing what they had been taught and, made to memorize like a math table.
For the third class we set up a projector and showed the children slides of various paintings/drawings of artists. The images were of what we can call child art. This produced great enthusiasm and great commotion at the same time. All in all the children enjoyed the slide show and have promised to make even better works in their subsequent class. The idea was to expose them to varied visual imagery.
We take two classes per week, one for the juniors and the other for the seniors. More updates will follow each week.
Aastha Chauhan
6th September 2005