Street children get shelter and canvas to paint, thanks to Artreach India

At first glance, it looks like any other art exhibition. But the beautifully framed artworks hang in the gallery and attract the viewership of a lot more ordinary folks than usual.

It’s the first hint of the fact that this is no ordinary show. The artists offer the second.

“My paintings express who I am and where I’ve come from,” says the diminutive Tina as she guides guests through the gallery of works, all produced during a year-long art training programme for the youths of Faridabad-based NGO Karm Marg. “I’m excited to show them my world, but nervous about what they’ll think of it,” she adds.

Other participants like Tina, all children rescued from the street and living in Karm Marg, confidently describe different art techniques they’ve learned from artist Megha Madan.

Children at art workshop | Photo: Artreach

“Our aim is to make art education accessible to all,” says Ita Mehrotra, programmes head of Artreach India, which has organised the training and the exhibition. “The idea is to enable these young people to discover an alternate medium of expression.”

Since they began in 2010 with a volunteer residency at the Salaam Baalak Trust, the folks at Artreach have worked with care homes like Udayan Care and Aman Biradari. “First, we engage with these homes through short-term workshops,” says Mehrotra.

Often, these workshops have transformed the walls of the homes into colourful, inviting spaces painted by the children. Additionally, every year Artreach awards a grant to an artist to work with children aged 14 to 18 in these homes. The mentoring artist teaches a foundation course in visual art and organises field visits to art colleges, exhibitions and art fairs. At the end of the year the students’ artworks are exhibited.

“Some years ago, three artists from the Royal Drawing School in London came to Karm Marg and spent over a week painting murals with the children,” says Veena Lal, founder-director of Karm Marg. “One of our children, Deepak, developed such a passion for art that the artists helped him enrol at the International Institute of Fine Arts in Modinagar.” Lal avers that Artreach has been successful in helping children like Deepak, who is now pursuing a Masters in Fine Arts, to find non-scholastic ways to express themselves.

Photo: Artreach

Artreach’s programmes have had other unexpected results. At their ongoing community art project at a homeless shelter in Delhi’s Jama Masjid, the act of painting was intensely therapeutic for the women participants. “The blank canvas became the private healing space they lacked in their lives on the street,” says Mehrotra.

Also, their programme Artroom connects alumni interested in a career in art with established artists. Some, like artist Atul Bhalla, have even hired interns from this network. Also on the anvil is a pilot programme in a Delhi government school which links science and English curricula with art.

Over the years, Artreach has partnered with care homes and NGOs such as Karm Marg, Jamghat, the Salaam Baalak Trust and Nari Gunjan. They have been supported by the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, the Devi Art Foundation, Book A Smile and others. “A single teaching fellowship costs Rs 4.5 lakh for the year,” she says. “Its impact, however, is long-lasting.”

Lal says that many from the present batch of students from Karm Marg want to follow in Deepak’s footsteps. “They may have had a traumatic childhood with patchy schooling,” says Lal, “but art education has given them the confidence to paint for themselves, and a more level playing field.”

For more on Artreach India, log on to www.artreachindia.org and their blog (artreachindia.wordpress.com) or follow them on Facebook and Instagram