Children come up with postcard size paintings for art fete

The drawings done on Biennale cards will be displayed at one of the venues hosting the three-month show.

The project, involving 23 schools in west Kochi and Ernakulam, has been initiated as an Educational Outreach programme being held as part of the Biennale to encourage the creativity of the new generation and help them join the momentous cultural jamboree ending on March 13 next.

The first step towards accomplishing the task began last month, when the organisers sent to select schools Biennale postcards that had one side of it blank for students, from class VII and above, to sketch and colour any image they wished.

Thus, artist Kajal Charankattu, a native of Cherthala in Alappuzha district, and her team, visited 23 schools the Kochi Biennale Foundation had shortlisted for the programme, and gave the students a 45-minute power-point presentation on their endeavour.

The organisers did not specify that the students attending their briefing should be proficient in drawing. "They could be anybody.... Maybe ones involved in other arts such as music, dance, theatre," said cartoonist Bonny Thomas, research coordinator with the Biennale.

The students then did their paintings on the cards, following which the schools are currently sending back the work of art in packs. One such school is the St Joseph's school at Chullikkal near Fort Kochi.

"So overwhelming was the response that several of our students, who couldn't get to paint, are eager to make it to the Biennale," says Tony Ettezhath, a teacher at the school.

"We will initially display them at a special venue," informs curator Riyas Komu, secretary with the Kochi Biennale Foundation.