Art in School across the years

After the One Day Fun Day! Workshops, we realized that teachers were consistently surprised and excited at how effectively their students who would usually not be communicative were excelling in the art-based sessions. At the same time, they would share regret that they do not feel confident to try these kinds of practical sessions in their regular school sessions.  The Srijanalaya team took this feedback to heart and began to look for a way to work with the teachers for longer periods of time. We approached Panga Secondary School, known as a trust-funded school in Panga, Kirtipur, where innovative teaching and learning practices led to an alumni of community-based leaders with either their own businesses and/or pursued higher studies in their respective fields. We approached the school with a proposal for a teacher support program that could offer our expertise as artists and educators to the teachers and school management – how can hands-on art-based activities be realistically integrated in the regular classroom? Social Studies units for grade 4 such as ‘We all are equal’, ‘Child Rights’, ‘Natural Resources of Nepal’, and ‘Traffic Rules’ became sessions where children wove paperstrips that they painted based on the diverse skin tones of their skin on to a piece of paper, while facilitating discussions about issues of equality. Students asked, “Where does my drinking water come from?” (a clay based session), “how come our skin colors come in so much variety?” (a painting session that also integrated fractions), or “how would I map out the different roads in my neighborhood and the traffic rules?” (a construction activity). For Science, we explored the ‘scientific method’ where students raised their own questions and tried to find answers to it. Exhibitions became a beautiful way to share this work with the other students, teachers, guardians, and larger school community. 

This work was supported through personal donations that people had shared after the earthquake for art education support in schools.

Srijanalaya’s relationship with Lalitpur Madhyamik Vidhyalaya began in 2016 at the Innovation in Education Fair where their teachers had attended a series of workshops with the Srijanalaya team. When we saw their motivation in wanting to incorporate the arts into their school through the work of their Vice Principal Gita Sitaula, we approached the school to see if they would be interested in a more long term teacher support program. The first year, we worked with subject teachers on integrating the arts into math lessons such as fractions or science through simple machines. During the second year, the school committed to regular art classes and Srijanalaya designed art medium-based sessions around drawing, collage, painting, construction, weaving, print-making, etc. Through teacher orientations and one-on-one mentoring of teachers, we began a multi-year program where teachers would gain exposure in art mediums as well as integrative teaching methods using the arts to teach their subjects/disciplines. We began the work of documenting the lessons and designing them into manuals during this process as well. 

We were able to begin this work with the support of the Fürst Foundation and Freundeskreis Tara for Children Germany. The manual work was also partially supported by the Rotary Yala.

In 2019, Srijanalaya brought the multi-year art-based teaching methods that we designed at Lalitpur Madhyamik Vidhyalaya to Nepal Adarsha Secondary School. We worked closely with their art teacher Bipana Maharjan as well as their subject teachers, and we included other schools in the orientations around drawing, collage, and painting. We worked on developing a close relationship with the teachers and began by interviewing them and observing their regular sessions in their classrooms as a baseline study. We also began working on doing child observations to begin to learn to study the impact these arts-based methods have on children’s ability to concentrate, their confidence levels, motor skills, etc. During these six months we worked closely with the administrators and teachers, making presentations about the importance of art, its use in the regular curriculum, and involving them in observing the changes. 

The work at Nepal Adarsha Secondary School was supported by Daya Foundation Nepal.

The learning across five years, led to the work we are currently pursuing with four schools in the Nagarjun Municipality – Amar Jyoti Secondary School, Shree Ichangu Narayan Basic School, Shree Seeta Bal Bikash Secondary School, and Shree Yuba Sahavagita Secondary School. After a series of online training sessions during the pandemic, the program has evolved into a three year program. Every year, the school administrators from the four schools, 12 teachers, and 375 students from grades 1 to 3 have been working closely with the Srijanalaya team on creative mediums such as drawing, collage, clay, weaving, construction, painting, and printmaking. The program has become a comprehensive practical training program for teachers to both learn an arts based medium for themselves as well as learn how to teach through it in their classes. 

The work in Nagarjun Municipality began as a collaboration with CanHelp Nepal, Rotary Kasthamandap, and the Nagarjun Municipality.