Art enthusiasts join hands to explore medium through walks

There are no dearth of heritage walks in the city to help Chennaiites connect with historical sites, architecture and history. But the concept of an ‘art walk’ is new to many. Two art enthusiasts, Anisha Palat and Varsha Narayanan started an initiative called Art Student Thoughts to organise art walks and interactive workshops to spread Indian art to a wide audience and make it easily accessible.

“We always had similar ways of thinking about art and have spoken about changing the landscape of art education in India. We feel that conversation with regard to the arts is lacking, and a reason for that might be the lack of awareness and general knowledge about the field. The information that does exist can sometimes be verbose and academically oriented, which makes it difficult for everyone to understand. Art Student Thoughts was born out of our shared love and interest in spreading art and making it easily understood and accessible to all audiences,” says Anisha, who works as an art consultant in the city.

Indian art in itself comprises a large body of work, starting from ancient times to the way it is today. But the duo has made sure that Art Student Thoughts mainly focuses on modern and contemporary Indian art, and disseminating knowledge about these two subject areas. Recently, they organised an art walk at the Contemporary Gallery, Government Museum, Egmore, where they made art comprehensible to an audience of novices in understanding art.

“As people interested in arts and culture, we have attended walks around the city that relate to heritage sites, temples, their architecture and history. We wanted to do an art walk as the concept seemed much more interactive and close-knit than just talk. Twenty-five people participated in the walk and we took them around the gallery where they got to engage with the exhibits and ask questions about the artwork and its history,” shares Varsha, who also takes art classes for children.

The youngsters feel that it is really important for today’s generation to know about Indian art and its history. “Most schools and colleges do not have art history as part of their curriculum. Indian art helps in understanding several ideas like politics, culture, history, art practices, etc.

“Look at how we understand ancient civilisations. Cavemen documented their lives on the walls of caves through art. This helped us understand that entire period in history. That is just one example of understanding and there are several more.

“Art or any visual form is easy to connect to — in some ways, it is the universal language that, no matter where in the world you are, meaning can be drawn from it. As Indian art history is worth aplenty and we must take pride in learning about it, not just for students. Schools and colleges should definitely plan such initiatives. Perhaps art can be a tool for students to even understand other subjects they are struggling with,” the duo says.

The duo is planning to hold more art walks at other venues across Chennai. “We are also hoping to move forward in the field ofart education and make art a common theme in schools, colleges and maybe even corporates,”remarks Anisha.