Divya Rao passed out of Lady Andal School in 2009, Indira Reddy in 2011, and Kadambari Narendran in 2012. Rao is now a lawyer and an artist, Reddy, an educational consultant and psychologist, and Kadambari, a special educator and psychologist. Six months ago, they realised that they had more in common that just their school — an urge to help children and adults who are differently abled.
Thus was born Kai Rassi, an organisation “which focuses on helping differently-abled artists to showcase and sell their work and encourage more children and adults to take up art as an occupation”. In the last six months, they have organised three workshops in collaboration with Deepam Special School, Sri Arunodayam and the Madras School of Social Work, and are gearing up for their debut exhibition and fundraiser this Sunday.
“The art show features six artists, among which are Swami, who is autistic, and sketches literal representations of what he sees; Narasimhalu, who has cerebral palsy and paints landscapes using his feet, and Akash Parakh, who is hearing-impaired, and does beautiful watercolour paintings…” says Reddy. All the works can be accessed through the website of Kai Rassi.
“Our idea is to connect the artists with mentors, and crowdfund their art classes. For example, now, Swami is undergoing a one-on-one training by an independent artist who has also done psychology,” adds Rao. The team has also approached senior artist AV Ilango to take classes for them. Promoting art, especially among those with special needs, is important because it helps channel the energy in the right direction, chips in Narendran. There have been cases where those who were non-verbal for the first five years of their lives started communicating after taking structured art classes.
The schedule
Ea ch workshop by Kai Rassi includes six to eight sessions spread over a month. “We start the sessions with dance, yoga or music, just to warm up, and then start the art sessions, where we give them different media to experiment with — foam, sand, colours, cotton etc. Some like to touch and feel what they are working with,” says Narendran. “It calms them down.”
Each workshop also gets a good number of volunteers. Rao says, “It’s tough to manage, have them sit down and concentrate on the work at hand. Sometimes they spill the paint or get excited and run around. Each participant requires one-on-one attention. That’s why for each workshop, we have a number of volunteers and also the assistance of the staff from each organisation, which we are conducting the workshops in, to oversee their behaviour and sensitivities. And more importantly to identify how much more they capable of?”
The art exhibition is on between 11.30 am and 7 pm at Swiss Hutte Cafe, Nungambakkam, on June 25.
