For this workshop, we tied up with Akanksha Foundation to visit a municipal school where we could engage children in discovering two Indian art forms: Gond art from Madhya Pradesh and Tholu Bommalaata from the Andhra region. Besides insights on the art and craft, the class of 45 students also got a grounding in related topics, like colours, patterns and techniques used, major influences and artists, beliefs behind artistic rituals and the art of storytelling as it is practiced in rural India. Over a two-hour interactive session, the kids created lamps using the Tholu Bommalata puppetry technique and illustrated them in the Gond art style, as demonstrated by our Experience and Outreach Associate Mitisha Mehta, who was supported by Sarmaya interns Manisha Kallivelil and Chandrica Barua. Once the artworks were ready, the lights were turned off and the glow of the lamps lit up the whole classroom.
Gond and puppetry workshop with Akanksha Foundation
At: Abyudaya Nagar, BMC School, Mumbai, On: April 24, 2018