ArtSparks in the News
Over the years, our work has been recognised and featured in many leading news channels and outlets, a non-comprehensive list of our more notable mentions is presented here.
We guest edited and developed a special edition of Samuhik Pahal!
ArtSparks Foundation was invited to guest edit and develop Wipro Foundation's education journal, Samuhik Pahal, and develop a special edition dedicated to art education in India.
The visual arts are often a much-neglected aspect of education in contemporary India. This process has had historical roots. The current issue of ‘Samuhik Pahal’ is an intervention in this context, that tries to capture the experiences of organizations across the country that are now working in the space of visual arts to enhance the learning experiences of children. This issue of the periodical has been guest-edited by ArtSparks Foundation, a Bengaluru-based non-profit, that has been at the forefront of the recent stirrings of change related to visual arts education in India. [Read here...]
ArtSparks Foundation was invited to guest edit and develop Wipro Foundation's education journal, Samuhik Pahal, and develop a special edition dedicated to art education in India.
The visual arts are often a much-neglected aspect of education in contemporary India. This process has had historical roots. The current issue of ‘Samuhik Pahal’ is an intervention in this context, that tries to capture the experiences of organizations across the country that are now working in the space of visual arts to enhance the learning experiences of children. This issue of the periodical has been guest-edited by ArtSparks Foundation, a Bengaluru-based non-profit, that has been at the forefront of the recent stirrings of change related to visual arts education in India. [Read here...]
What's in a Name? From Training to Transformational Development | Samuhik Pahal Vol 1, Issue 11
Nisha Nair, our Founder and Executive Director wrote an article for Wipro's Samuhik Pahal magazine, in an issue focusing on capacity building.
Children from underserved communities encounter numerous challenges that often adversely impact their learning and development. The school experiences for many—characterized by a heavy reliance on textbooks, memorization of content, and narrow assessments in the form of tests— compromise the development of skills and attitudes necessary for children to flourish. This, in turn, limits children’s access to future opportunities. Disrupting problematic beliefs requires a recognition that these beliefs exist in the first place. And, it involves identifying the root cause of their existence. [Read more...]
Nisha Nair, our Founder and Executive Director wrote an article for Wipro's Samuhik Pahal magazine, in an issue focusing on capacity building.
Children from underserved communities encounter numerous challenges that often adversely impact their learning and development. The school experiences for many—characterized by a heavy reliance on textbooks, memorization of content, and narrow assessments in the form of tests— compromise the development of skills and attitudes necessary for children to flourish. This, in turn, limits children’s access to future opportunities. Disrupting problematic beliefs requires a recognition that these beliefs exist in the first place. And, it involves identifying the root cause of their existence. [Read more...]
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19th Wipro Education Partners' Forum: Art and Education
Our Founder and Executive Director, Nisha Nair, spoke at the 19th Wipro Education Partners' Forum addressing the question 'What might Education Learn from the Arts about the Practice of Education?' |
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Art Sparks: Ideas, Methods, Processes by Nisha Nair | News | Art & Art Education | Arts & Humanities | Teachers College, Columbia University
Growing up in India, Nisha Nair’s experience with schooling was fraught with challenges―teachers emphasized memorization and regurgitation of content over fostering understanding, critical thinking, imagination. Years later, after spending a decade working in the field of marketing communications design, these memories and art-related work opportunities would inform Nisha’s decision to enter the field of art education. In 2005, during a short sabbatical in India, Nisha’s work on a rehabilitation project with children and youth who escaped bonded labor would lead her to pursue a Master’s degree in Art Education. [Read more...]
Growing up in India, Nisha Nair’s experience with schooling was fraught with challenges―teachers emphasized memorization and regurgitation of content over fostering understanding, critical thinking, imagination. Years later, after spending a decade working in the field of marketing communications design, these memories and art-related work opportunities would inform Nisha’s decision to enter the field of art education. In 2005, during a short sabbatical in India, Nisha’s work on a rehabilitation project with children and youth who escaped bonded labor would lead her to pursue a Master’s degree in Art Education. [Read more...]
Learning through the Arts: Creative Capabilities of Students Showcased through Visual Arts-in-Education Programme
This Week Bangalore.Com, Bengaluru, 20 June 2015
ArtSparks Foundation opened a two day exhibition 'Learning through the Arts' featuring artworks of students from Adarsha Vidya Samsthe in Addagal, Kolar District and TVS Academy, Hosur at Thalam Gallery in the city today. The artworks on display are the result of the children’s engagement with a Visual Arts-in-Education Programme, conducted by ArtSparks Foundation. Working in the space of arts-in-education, ArtSparks is driven by a belief in the value of the visual arts and its contributions to learning and the all-round development of a child. [Read more...]
This Week Bangalore.Com, Bengaluru, 20 June 2015
ArtSparks Foundation opened a two day exhibition 'Learning through the Arts' featuring artworks of students from Adarsha Vidya Samsthe in Addagal, Kolar District and TVS Academy, Hosur at Thalam Gallery in the city today. The artworks on display are the result of the children’s engagement with a Visual Arts-in-Education Programme, conducted by ArtSparks Foundation. Working in the space of arts-in-education, ArtSparks is driven by a belief in the value of the visual arts and its contributions to learning and the all-round development of a child. [Read more...]
The Creativity Quotient – The Hindu
Think back to your earliest memories of effectively learning anything — even something as simple as discovering an instrument that helps you write. When your mother handed you a crayon and turned a blind eye when you scribbled arbitrary, yet colourful lines on the wall? Or in arts-and crafts class in pre-school, when you gleefully tried to fashion a paper boat from colour paper? Or was it when you emphatically mouthed Mark Anthony’s speech, along with the actor on stage — “Friends, Romans, countrymen….” — as you learnt about the skill of oration for your literature class? [Read more...]
Think back to your earliest memories of effectively learning anything — even something as simple as discovering an instrument that helps you write. When your mother handed you a crayon and turned a blind eye when you scribbled arbitrary, yet colourful lines on the wall? Or in arts-and crafts class in pre-school, when you gleefully tried to fashion a paper boat from colour paper? Or was it when you emphatically mouthed Mark Anthony’s speech, along with the actor on stage — “Friends, Romans, countrymen….” — as you learnt about the skill of oration for your literature class? [Read more...]
Creative in Class – Bangalore Mirror
Meet Nisha Nair, a design and educational professional who worked in New York City for several years as a teacher, researcher, curriculum specialist and programme director for an arts-in-education non-profit. Last year, Nair moved to India to spend time with her parents and decided to put her expertise in arts education to use here too. Thus was born the ArtSparks Foundation, a non-profit organisation that designs curriculums based on learning through visual arts for schools in Bengaluru. Nair believes that traditional methods of learning are very linear and do not allow children to think laterally and visually, a problem that can be resolved by introducing arts in education. [Read more...]
Meet Nisha Nair, a design and educational professional who worked in New York City for several years as a teacher, researcher, curriculum specialist and programme director for an arts-in-education non-profit. Last year, Nair moved to India to spend time with her parents and decided to put her expertise in arts education to use here too. Thus was born the ArtSparks Foundation, a non-profit organisation that designs curriculums based on learning through visual arts for schools in Bengaluru. Nair believes that traditional methods of learning are very linear and do not allow children to think laterally and visually, a problem that can be resolved by introducing arts in education. [Read more...]
Art: A Spark to Help Kids Think Out of the Box – Deccan Chronicle
In a country where schooling means rote learning and children are made to cram their textbooks, get into the rat race for grades and ranks, aspects like creativity and thinking out of the box take a back seat. In such a scenario ArtSparks Foundation, an NGO, tries to makes use of art as a tool for learning and engaging children as well as teachers in a creative process. Besides developing learning and life skills among children, it also helps them develop problem solving abilities, to innovate, ideate and think flexibly. [Read more...]
In a country where schooling means rote learning and children are made to cram their textbooks, get into the rat race for grades and ranks, aspects like creativity and thinking out of the box take a back seat. In such a scenario ArtSparks Foundation, an NGO, tries to makes use of art as a tool for learning and engaging children as well as teachers in a creative process. Besides developing learning and life skills among children, it also helps them develop problem solving abilities, to innovate, ideate and think flexibly. [Read more...]
Art With No Strings Attached – A CRY Volunteer's Observations of ArtSparks’ Programme
On a warm, stuffy day in Delhi, I came face to face with a 5 feet by 5 feet canvas at the French Embassy. I stood mesmerised by the scale of it and also horrified that I was expected to fill this white expanse along with four schoolmates in a matter of a few hours. The horror wasn’t entirely because of the task at hand but because I knew that in the pecking order of ‘artists’ that stood in front of the canvas that day I was right at the bottom. I had never actually been ‘right at the bottom’; never felt the terror of failing at art before, because in my tiny little world comprising of 40 classmates I was passably ok. [Read more...]
On a warm, stuffy day in Delhi, I came face to face with a 5 feet by 5 feet canvas at the French Embassy. I stood mesmerised by the scale of it and also horrified that I was expected to fill this white expanse along with four schoolmates in a matter of a few hours. The horror wasn’t entirely because of the task at hand but because I knew that in the pecking order of ‘artists’ that stood in front of the canvas that day I was right at the bottom. I had never actually been ‘right at the bottom’; never felt the terror of failing at art before, because in my tiny little world comprising of 40 classmates I was passably ok. [Read more...]
This Organisation Is Solving One of The Greatest Problems of Education System in India Through Arts
Jyothi is a 6th grader at a local government school that we serve. When we first encountered Jyothi in our Creative Learning Lab – a dedicated space that we’ve developed to nurture children’s creative potential and foster 21st-century learning and life skills – her disengagement was very evident. Also noticeable was that her detachment stemmed from a discomfort with open-ended tasks that required her to arrive at her unique solutions. [Read more...]
Jyothi is a 6th grader at a local government school that we serve. When we first encountered Jyothi in our Creative Learning Lab – a dedicated space that we’ve developed to nurture children’s creative potential and foster 21st-century learning and life skills – her disengagement was very evident. Also noticeable was that her detachment stemmed from a discomfort with open-ended tasks that required her to arrive at her unique solutions. [Read more...]
7 x 1 = 7, 7 x 2 = 14: isn't education more than just learning by heart?
Rote learning or learning by heart is an accepted reality of the Indian education system. Parents and teachers are aware of the fact that the existing education system quells the creativity of the child and transforms studies into a chore, to be pursued for the sole aim of scoring marks and not for the pure joy of learning. But they too, like the children, are trapped within the system and are unable to break away from the age-old style of how things were done. [Read more...]
Rote learning or learning by heart is an accepted reality of the Indian education system. Parents and teachers are aware of the fact that the existing education system quells the creativity of the child and transforms studies into a chore, to be pursued for the sole aim of scoring marks and not for the pure joy of learning. But they too, like the children, are trapped within the system and are unable to break away from the age-old style of how things were done. [Read more...]
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