Even though the much-talked about Museum of Art and Photography (MAP) is still under construction, its programming has already rolled out.
The museum, in partnership with Flow India, a design and delivery consultant, housed a series of free exhibitions and workshops titled "Tails and Tales" for school children in the city, through the academic year 2016 – 2017. It has now launched "Journeys through Art", a free crash course providing children between the age group of seven to 13 with a broad understanding and appreciation of Indian visual art, spanning different time periods. Students from five schools - Home School, Silver Oaks International School, Inventure Academy, Trio World Academy, Candor International School, in the city are attending the workshop.
The first phase of this course is already underway. It was launched on August 28 with a mythology and storytelling themed exhibition and workshop, titled "Once Upon A Tale". Both the exhibition and the workshop explore different mythologies and traditions of storytelling in the Indian cultural landscape and their roles in shaping identity. They give the participants a glimpse into many interlinked histories and the relevance of the myth in our social, cultural, political and personal lives. Educating young children about art using museum pedagogy is an effective means to facilitate and advocate lateral thinking among them.
Shilpa Vijayakrishnan, Programmes Manager at MAP says, "Studies have shown that involvement in the arts leads to cognitive, creative, emotive and civic development. Yet, we unfortunately continue to largely neglect and sideline the arts in our schools. Education is one of MAP's founding principles, because we recognise the deficiency of opportunities, exposure and understanding when it comes to art and art history in the country, despite its rich visual traditions and cultural heritage.” She points out that we often find 'art' either intimidating and difficult to understand, or of little value and significance. The workshop series produced in partnership with Flow are designed to challenge such ideas, along with more traditional notions of what constitutes art and gets children to see and think for themselves.
"While the first set of workshops is over, the second set will begin on October 11. "Over 100 children are expected to attend the workshop. Each workshop is designed around a theme. if the earlier set focused on mythology, this one would concentrate on politics. The idea is to teach them to how to look at art, how to perceive an art work in view of different contexts such as mythology and politics," adds Shilpa. There would be some standalone workshops as well.
The museum, in order, to stress on its engagement with art education, has already started off with relevant programmes even though the physical space is yet to come up. "We also want to change the perception about museums being considered boring and dry. Visiting a museum can be fun.”
MAP is expected to be built in a 42,000 square foot space by 2020 on Kasturba Road. The museum will have multiple galleries across five floors, an auditorium, a research library, a restoration lab, classrooms, a museum store and cafe. It is centred around a collection of art, photography, textiles and design, predominantly from the Indian subcontinent, ranging from the 12th century to the present.
(For details visit http://map-india.org)
