Gond art workshop at Govt Middle School Sheeri Payeen, Baramulla Kashmir

Yet another effort by JK Arts Foundation to take art workshops/classes to children

living in remote villages of J&K

Sheeri, January 12: The intermediate Gond art (a form of folk and tribal art) workshop at Government Middle School Sheeri Payeen Baramulla Kashmir began with the sensitization of the children and teachers about Covid Appropriate Behaviour (CAB). All this was followed by a brief introduction about the JK Arts Foundation and the Gond Art. The JK Arts Foundation team made sure that all children (39 in number) were wearing facemasks and maintaining physical distance throughout the workshop. The entry to the venue was blocked with snow falling from sloped rooftops and the teachers accompanied by locals volunteered to shovel snow in front of the hall, where the workshop was conducted. The students were seen waiting for the JKAF team to arrive so that they can begin to demonstrate their creative skills, and above all a new approach to learning. The visibly curious eyes of the students remained glued to the video projector, until the end, following every step of the JKAF artist to create a Gond painting. The workshop inspired creativity and imagination in such a way that the headmistress and a teacher of the school picked up the pencil, paper and colours, and started to do the painting with their students. As the hall kept humming with happy faces of children who were having discussions about which color is which, a teacher namely Reyaz Ahmad present there said: “I have learned some important things today related to teaching and learning: to have a sense of color is a joyous thing and creativity is a way to understand the principles and disciplines of learning.” Another teacher, Javid Ahmad, present on the occasion said that the art workshop has helped us evaluate the special abilities of our students such as to be creative and explorative. “Art is a valuable skill and benefits children's cognitive development. No child on earth should be deprived of the pleasure of learning it,” he added. The headmistress of the school, Hafeeza Bano, said that children in my opinion should be engaged in a creative exercise like this at least twice a month. “Children are by nature curious and creative, and I believe the art workshops, the likes of which JKAF is conducting across the Union Territory of J&K, encourage the children to master these intrinsic skills,” Bano added. When asked if they enjoyed the art workshop, all students said yes in unison without hesitation. The students also said they had never before participated in an art workshop and enjoyed the experience immensely. Some of them even told the JKAF team that they will pursue arts education when they reach college. “We are thankful to JK Arts Foundation for organizing an art workshop and providing us with free art supplies to experience the joy of learning and creating art,” they said. The JK Arts Foundation team thanked all the participants, students as well as teachers who helped them generously in making the workshop a success. “JKAF advocates for art and art education, and aims to bring it to all children who are not fortunate enough to learn it at their schools,” the team informed the participants.