The library as a space for art exploration

Sanika Dhakephalkar

As educators, teachers, and facilitators, have you noticed how most children hesitate to express themselves through art? Where do you think this reluctance stems from?

Children do not have freedom in art classes and are expected to copy a given image exactly. As such, ‘observation drawing’ focuses on the ‘observation’ of certain rules rather than experiencing and sharing of experiences (Atkinson 1996). The library can counter this practice and become a space where children have the freedom to create their own forms of expression and build their own narratives.

I have been conducting visual arts programmes for the Bookworm Library and its various initiatives. I usually begin a programme by making and ‘reading’ (interpreting) abstract art. If the first thing that children notice when they encounter art is that it can be absolutely anything they want it to be, and that they can interpret it in their own ways, they don’t push art away. Together, the children and I have created and interpreted abstract art inspired by Mehlli Gobhai, SH Raza, and Anne Herbauts. Looking at, interpreting, and naming abstract works of art help children experience freedom within themselves. In nearly all visual arts sessions that I have conducted in schools, I have encountered hesitation among children in freely expressing what they feel. It becomes important for the facilitator then to remind children that they are viewing and making art in an environment (the library) that does not need binary answers from them. At the same time, these sessions also validate children’s thought-worlds without an adult having to tell them what to do. School libraries can therefore become spaces where children can be encouraged to exercise their curiosity about each other and the world. A facilitator does not need to be an expert in art to conduct these sessions as long as they are themselves curious and have the spirit of learning, research, and expression. One of the ways this curiosity can be harnessed, especially in schools, is by helping children explore their everyday environments followed by browsing and referencing books about nature and creating artworks or books to record their observations and experiences.

Art-making in the library

It gives me immense joy to work with children and offer them possibilities of creating and telling stories without having to rely on words, to see them shed the limitations of acquired languages and interpret the meanings of their creations in their own ways.

At Bookworm’s community library in Chimbel, Goa, the children and I made our own scroll books. I first introduced children to tempera paint*. I let the children explore this medium on their own and did not tell them how they should or could use these paints. I simply gave them a topic and divided them into groups where they painted their own interpretations of it, discovering how the medium works along the way. In the second session, I introduced them to the book Tsunami by Joydeb and Moyna Chitrakar. We read it together and explored the subject, the artwork, the history, and the process of creating Patua scrolls. After this, I divided the children into groups and asked them to make scroll books about their neighbourhoods. We created the front and back covers for their books using a mount board. The children designed cover pages and even wrote blurbs for the back cover. The books explored various topics such as changes in the neighbourhood over time, how the neighbourhood looked during the monsoon, what one could expect to see on a walk in the neighbourhood, a story of the library over the years in the community, and a fictional story about children from the neighbourhood who wanted to visit a zoo. The children’s excitement at having made books based on their own lives and experiences was palpable and as a facilitator and as someone for whom Goa is a recent home, I was able to learn a lot about the children and Chimbel through these books.

It is only after this that we approached observation drawing inspired by the book Ish by Peter H Reynolds, a beautiful book that encourages the reader to not worry about whether something looks exactly right, and to draw anyway. I saw that the children did not hesitate to look around and draw the mountain, a broken plastic chair, the water tank, clothes drying on a line, a broken slipper lying nearby, the tree next to us, and us on our library space on the ground in the middle of all this. Their drawings were not exact copies of what they saw around themselves, but they did not hesitate to attempt the drawing and they welcomed not only theirs but their friends’ interpretations of the same scene.

Visual arts and the library

All this and more can be replicated in the school library as well. Children who come to listen to and share stories are more likely to tell their own stories when offered the opportunities and the tools. Readers who are used to delving into stories will also be open to exercises of ‘reading’ art. Similarly, engaging with different art forms, movements, and artists can open up deeper connections with library collections and books, as children expand their range of perspectives. Book-making exercises open up ideas about the book as an object and bring children closer to understanding what goes into building a book and a story, which in turn brings them closer to the books they read. The connection of the library to visual arts is unique in this way.

We hope to be able to take this approach of visual arts in the library to many library educators and children. The selection of media plays an important role here and a library educator must keep the following things in mind while choosing the media:

• No pencils or erasers. Use paint and soft pastels and other exciting and forgiving media.
  • Avoid A4 and ‘official’ sized paper. Use squares or other fun shapes.
  • Incorporate exploration with material and experimentation with different media.

Apart from the media, a shift in the educator’s mindset is vital. The following things must be considered while approaching art-making with children in the library:

• Pose your questions and tasks in a way that allows each child the space to bring their own voice to the artwork. Avoid tasks that involve copying and replication.
  • Appreciate and affirm at each step, set open-ended goals, help them reach where they want to go.
  • Think of yourself as an artist and bring that same consideration to the children. Explore, experiment, and research with the chosen media before the session – your familiarity with the media will help them.
  • Encourage interpretation. Ask children what they see in their own and each others’ art, what their favourite paintings are, why they like what they like, etc.
  • Build confidence in expression, then move towards drawing from observation if you wish to do so at all.
  • Be inspired by your collection!

*A water based paint similar to poster colours, but different in composition and texture. It is translucent while painting but opaque with a chalky texture when dry.

Reference

Atkinson, D. (2002). Art in Education: Identity and practice. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA62600077

The author is an artist, educator, poet, and translator based in Goa and currently leads the Visual Arts Program at Bookworm Library. They can be reached at sanika@bookwormgoa.in.