Shivangi

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA under Productions is towards a manuscript of a graphic journal The Art-Educators’ Diary, an illustrated account of the work of art-educators in the form of comics in Hindi. The book will hold stories and experiences of art-educators working in alternate learning spaces for children - care homes, learning centers, libraries and NGO run schools. This will be a handbook which will include research, stories, anecdotes, challenges, conversations with students and art educators, and even lesson plans and curriculum through hand-drawn comics. Shivangi is the Coordinator for this project.  

Shivangi is an artist, illustrator and educator based in New Delhi, India. With a background in fine arts. She has worked across various fields including art education, illustration, programming, publishing, and exhibition design. Her practice is rooted in collaboration, often shaped by working with other artists and practitioners on self-initiated projects. In 2016, along with three fellow artists, she co-founded BlueJackal, an independent publishing platform for comics, visual stories and graphic narratives. At the core of her practice lies visual storytelling, serving as a medium through which she connects with broader networks of art education, art platforms, and independently run publishing initiatives. Given her expertise she is best placed to be the Project Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA. Anarya, a visual artist and an art educator based in Delhi, will be the collaborator in this project.

For this project, Shivangi and Anarya will work together to create an illustrated manuscript of a graphic journal of the works of art-educators in the form of Hindi comics. This journal will be an exercise of recordkeeping, archiving, noting down reflections of educators, as well as a record on collaborations. Inspired by the works of artist-practitioners such as Devi Prasad, Linda Barry and Cathy G. Johnson, on recording and archiving their research and practice, the project coordinator wants to create this graphic journal. 

Both Shivangi and Anarya work with and conduct workshops with groups comprising children, youth, and women from marginalised communities through long-term sustained contacts. They also work with artists, educators, caregivers, and coordinators working in similar contexts. Together in these workshops they engage in a needs-informed curriculum, which is developed in conversation with the participants - with the freedom to design, redesign, break, and mold the curriculum, without any burden of creating perfect outcomes. It is this spirit of co-creation, experimentation, learning and unlearning that they want to document and illustrate The Art Educators’ Diary. Although there are many activity books available for art-educators, there is a lack of books with artistic research focusing on pedagogy from the lens of personal experiences. Comics play an intriguing function here, as it has the capacity to tell complex histories with personal narratives. In comics the same text can acquire different meanings with different visual treatments. Therefore, the project coordinator wants to use comics as a form of documenting their experiences. 

In recent times, comics have entered mainstream education as resources, with teachers and students having access to comics in English. The project coordinator wants to create the comics in Hindi for teachers in non-formal and formal educational programmes and encourage its use in storytelling in classroom spaces for Hindi speaking audiences. 

The outcome of this project will be a graphic journal with comics in Hindi, illustrating the shared experiences of teachers, children, and art educators working in varied spaces. Shivangi and Anarya will conduct workshops, host conversations with these communities of people and document their experiences and learnings, along with reflecting on their personal experiences and illustrating them.

The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be documentation materials and the manuscript of a graphic journal - an illustrated account of the work of art-educators in the form of comics in Hindi. 

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Practice Programme in the manner in which it intends to create an illustrated account of the work of art-educators for anyone who wishes to understand more about art education for children and art pedagogies in the context of social work.

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. 

This project is supported by Tata Trusts.