Lakshminarayana T

Lakshminarayana T, an Art Teacher from Government Urdu School at Devara Jeevana Halli, Bangalore wears many hats. Unlike other teachers who limit themselves to the school, Lakshminarayana has been engaging his passion for arts activities in a very expansive manner. Serving as an arts teacher he also works towards upgrading the strength of analytical thinking in his Urdu speaking students by encouraging their participation in debates on the content of their curricula. At a personal level he has kept himself updated of regional literature and the arts.

Through this project Lakshminarayana aims to develop a positive self-identity in Urdu speaking local students through studying their own histories and cultures through the literary arts, music and visual arts.  He hopes that this will improve their academic performance and quality of life. By integrating local art perspectives for non-Local students, the project also attempts to build an appreciation of local cultures. He has proposed to use resources and specialists from the neighbourhood community as well as those from other parts of Bangalore to interact with students on a regular basis. The grant will also support a series of workshops for his fellow colleagues to sensitise them to arts education. He plans to keep the programme open to students from other schools as well.

The outcome of the project will be a series of renderings of different art forms in a festival organised by the school for the community. The deliverables of the project to IFA will be images and audio-video documentation of the programmes. 

This grant was made possible with support from Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore and Citi India.