Janine Art Exhibition: Kunchhcal village Art workshop for children/women/Local Teacher

Himalayan Nepal

Community Children Art School was established in 2014. Since its establishment, the school has been providing art and craft classes of all types every Saturday and Sunday for two hours each day. We have been enrolling children over 4 years, providing them lessons to help them sharpen their skills as well as their keen interest in various art activities.

CCAS not only runs classes for students residing in the city but occasionally also travels within the Kathmandu Valley to places such as Kirtipur, Bhaktapur, Bungamati, Lamjung and many more to make children and locals aware of the importance of art not only for academic purposes but also because of its importance in Nepali culture and tradition. For example, in the month of April, the CCAS team paid a visit to Kunchal, a small village situated in Hetauda area in Makwanpur District. The three nights four days trip enabled us to give training to underprivileged children and to make them explore the benefits of art activities while providing them with a brief knowledge of the importance of art and crafts. However, the main objective of our visit to Kunchal was to help teachers and locals to become aware of the teaching and learning process of art. During the visit, the local women of the village were also given training for craft activities such as jewelry making, specifically with pearls.

Sarita Dongol is a Visual artist with a Master Degree In Fine Arts from Tribhuwan University, Nepal.

Awards:

1992 1st prize in “Human happiness” org. by Srijana Contemporary Art Gallery Nepal

2001 1st prize “The second eastern region” painting competitions and exhibition, India

(Org. by Camlin Art foundation, kolkota)

2004 Special prize of 35th National wide painting competition, org. NAFA

2011- Arniko youwa puraskar samman & gold Medal.

2013- Hem Ghanga Young Talent Women Artist Award, KTM,Nepal

International & Asian artist residency:

2002- Fukuoka Asian Art Museum ,Fukuoka city,Japan (Three month)

2006- Uijea Art Museum, Gwanju city ,S.Korea (Three month )

2010-International painting, music, dance seminar “SAMBHAV” at Delhi, India

During the two days long workshop/training program, we had a total of 27 male and female teachers from two different schools who were taught color differences, drawings, basic differences between artistic shapes and cuts and much more. From what they have acquired, the knowledge of art will be passed down to their students, which ultimately was our main objective. Indeed all the participating teachers were very keen on learning and were extremely grateful as they had never been given such an opportunity before. Similarly, our CCAS team also taught them how to recycle used materials and to make funny artistic products with them and this was indeed a very funny part of the training program. Materials such as paper, stones, wood, leaves, ropes and other stuff were used for the purpose of reusing and recycling training.

Similarly for the children of the village who were deprived of such opportunities, we provided paper, pencils, erasers, art material such as paint, paint brushes, and for the very first time they drew pictures and painted according to their artistic imagination. Almost 70 students participated in this programme and were very interested and made a remarkable performance. Unlike the students of the city area who are constantly exposed to the titbits of the world, it brought the CCAS team an immense pleasure to become a source and a helping hand for those who eagerly wanted to learn and teach.

Thus, CCAS got an opportunity to convey to the village society - students, teachers and local women - a concept of art studies not only theoretically but also on a practical level The two days training program was accompanied by a small collective exhibition of the children's art work created during the workshop. This event also helped women to discover their independence and gave them a sense of empowerment as they were taught how to make Pearl ornaments, bangles, handmade earrings. 25 women who have taken part in the workshop were able to make a set of 40-50 pieces of such accessories. This will help women who have no access to income-generating activities to be able in the future to support themselves and their families.