Art for Farming: A Presentation by Aparna Deshpande | Project Showcase@IFA | May 25, 2022

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA)
invites you to
Art for Farming
A presentation by Aparna Deshpande
with Shanta Siddannavar and Savita Desai sharing their experiences
(The session will be conducted in English, Marathi and Kannada)

Wednesday, May 25, 2022 | 06:30 PM – 07:30 PM IST | Zoom and Facebook Live

How can a farmer inculcate farming practices into the school curriculum? In what ways do students from different linguistic communities celebrate their multifaceted cultures by tending to a patch of land?  

We are delighted to invite you to Art for Farming, a presentation by Aparna Deshpande about her project at Government Primary School in Vijayanagar, Belagavi, that involved bringing together regional agricultural practices to develop a vegetable garden where the school students could connect with each other. Aparna will be joined by Shanta Siddannavar and Savita Desai, teachers from the school, who will also share their experience of closely witnessing this project.

Belgavi, a city along the borders of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa has a multilingual community with Kannada and Marathi being the most spoken languages. Aparna’s project centered on a school that had both Kannada and Marathi being used as mediums for teaching. The project engaged students with local farming practices through songs, stories and local vocabulary that attempted to bring together students of both communities, leading towards understanding and celebrating cultural and linguistic diversity. It finally led to the formation of a kitchen garden patch and a local farming calendar in the style of miniature paintings. 

Aparna Deshpande is a miniature artist, a master potter, a mentor for children with special needs and their parents, and an art teacher. 

Shanta Siddannavar is an Assistant Teacher at Government Kannada Higher Primary School in Vijayanagar,  Hindalaga, Belagavi district. She teaches Kannada, English, Hindi, Mathematics and Science and recently completed 25 years of service. 

Savita Desai is an Assistant Teacher at Government Marathi Higher Primary School in Vijayanagar, Hindalaga, Belagavi district. She enjoys drawing, painting and is passionate about arts, crafts and agriculture. 

Aparna received a grant from IFA in 2016-17 under the Arts Education programme, made possible with support from Citi India.

This session is organised as part of the Project Showcase @ IFA, a series of online presentations to showcase, discuss, and engage audiences with the diverse projects we support across programmes. 

Click here to register for the discussion on Zoom.

The discussion will also be streamed live on our Facebook page, for which no prior registration is required.