Ramesh Narayanarao

Ramesh N, with a Post Graduation Diploma in Painting from the MS University, Baroda, is a practicing artist with more than two decades of teaching experience in visual arts, architecture, animation and design. His recent position as Dean, Acharya Institute of Art and Design in Hesaraghatta exposed him to the Model Primary School of the government.

This grant will enable Ramesh to engage forty students of the sixth and seventh grade in the school to understand visual arts (drawing and painting) and design as mediums of creative solutions. Students will learn to go beyond the observing and following to questioning and exploring what they see. Another aspect of this project is to invite teachers to become ‘Co-Learners’ and address the issues of teaching and learning using visual art and design as an effective medium of communication.

Ramesh strongly feels that by exposing students to such core and fundamental subjects of art and design helps them to learn from their environment and express what they feel as an individual. It not only helps to mould individual personality, but also provides skills in articulation of innovative thoughts and ways to implement those thoughts.

Ramesh will engage students in various skill development workshops in different formats for painting, drawing, murals, storytelling, illustration, and documenting the local social and cultural life. The project will be implemented in multiple stages, with schedules of once or twice a week. Some mixed media work and art journals/scrap books making with collages using both visuals and texts will help students learn visualisation techniques for both 2D and 3D forms. Some of the outdoor activities will involve visiting public places like religious gatherings, markets, parks and streets of their locations to interact with people and observe life. Once such information is collected, they will transform that to create local narratives with visuals. All activities will be connected to each other to give a larger sense of the world they inhabit. For some of the workshops, Ramesh will invite professional resources too.

The deliverables of the programme will include visual documentation of the processes. A ten to twelve minute video document is optional.

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