Santhosh DD

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA will engage fifth, sixth, and seventh grade students of Government Higher Primary School in Kalkere village, Hassan district with the traditional folk practise tingalu mavana habba – a celebration of the rain gods - by connecting it to their school curriculum in social science, mathematics, and languages. Santhosh DD will be the Coordinator for this project. 

Santhosh is a theatre practitioner based in Hassan district. He has completed his theatre education from Ninasam and has been part of many local theatre groups across Karnataka. He has worked as a director, set designer, makeup artist, and a dramaturg with renowned theatre practitioners in the state. Santhosh has also conducted several workshops for children and community members in his village. Given his experience he is best placed to be the Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA.

Hassan is home for various folk art forms and traditional practices. It is also known as the capital of temple-architecture in Karnataka. The Hoysala Empire from the 12th century that ruled major parts of South India has a large contribution in the development of the city. During their reign the arts and culture of the region flourished. Today, these practices help bring local communities together and create spaces for cultural exchange and harmony. 

In this project, Santhosh along with the fifth, sixth, and seventh grade students from Government Higher Primary School in Kalkere village, Hassan district is planning to explore one such traditional practice - tingalu mavana habba – a celebration of the rain gods - which is slowly disappearing from the region. This is a seasonal festival where all the community members come together to perform rituals for the rain gods for good yield of harvest during the year. Santhosh and his students will learn and document the local songs and stories from this practice by connecting it to their mathematics, science, social science and language curriculum. In the first stage, students will interview the elders in the village to collect stories and songs and through workshops by relevant resource people they will learn to connect it to their curriculum. Santhosh as a Coordinator will encourage students to write their own short stories and learn the geometrical patterns used in rangolis of the tingalu mavana habba. 

In the second phase, Santhosh will invite community members to the school for conversations with students and teachers. They will share the aesthetics of this practice through narrations of fantasy stories about the moon and planets. This exercise will be further developed by studying topics including solar system and environmental science. Students will have field visits to nearby lakes and historical sites to expand the scope of the project. They will attempt to capture all their learnings during these visits in the form of drawings and paintings which will be put up in the school premise. Santhosh would like to involve students in the exploration of only the artistic aspects of this practice and not the religious or ritualistic aspects. 

In the third phase, students will learn to play few local folk instruments and present all their learnings in a series of performance in their village. This project will unpack the art integrated learning possibilities in the classroom and also create an experiential learning platform for the students.  

The outcome of the project will be a series of performances in the presence of school staff and community members. The deliverables to IFA with the final report will include still and video documentation of the process and the series of performances.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Education programme in the manner in which it attempts to connect students and schools to the cultural knowledge of the regions they inhabit and communities they live amidst.

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.