August 2023 Highlights
Dear LinkedIn Community,
In today's ever-accelerating realm of social media, where stories and news crackles every second, we're hitting the brakes momentarily to reflect on some of our absolute favorite updates from the month of August 2023.
Read on to know how our August was!
??Our students took on their own creative space missions!
To celebrate Chandrayaan-3's landing on the moon, we invited all our Big Little Artists (Saturday Art Class students) to celebrate and participate in a quick art activity.
We asked them a simple question-"If you had to embark on a space mission, where would you go, and what would you do in space?"
This simple question launched so many ideas, thoughts and answers in our students minds that allowed them to explore and imagine! They ultimately channeled various renditions of missions they would embark across space through ART!
?? “Thank you for making our children do art!"
As part of our Art Labs program, our facilitators had the opportunity to share about the Saturday Art Class intervention with the parents of students at our model school-Shankarwadi Mumbai Public School. Through our conversations with parents, we were so happy to hear that students were taking art beyond school and creatively expressing themselves with the help of art in their own free time. This new practice seen among their children made parents very happy as they are now able to witness their talents and skills beyond academic subjects.
?? Art Connect!
As part of our Art for Educator program, we introduced Art Connect, an interactive chat-bot tool to enhance our engagement with visual arts educators across India!
It efficiently disseminates resources and collects real-time data, driving program enhancement. As a pivotal component of our program it creates access to multilingual resources and live support on WhatsApp, supporting educators to effectively implement visual arts classes for children.
???? Make way for our Mentors!
This year, once again, we introduced our volunteering program, The Mentorship Program and welcomed 10 Mentors to join us in providing 500+ children access to visual arts and social emotional learning.
领英推荐
Mentors play a key role in assisting our visual art facilitators in creating a safe creative space for students to imagine, explore, create and share in the visual art and social-emotional learning process.
Watch a delightful experience at Saturday Art Class from the lens of our mentor Zenia- https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvpK4iIt6sP/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
?? #Storiesfromtheground: "What excites children the most about art?"
As a training member at Saturday Art Class, during my visits to classrooms, I often wondered, "What excites children the most about art?" Is it challenging themselves to draw something exactly the way it is modeled to them? Is it adopting an art form or an artist’s individual craft? Or is it seeking new ways to create something unique and channeling it as their own?
In search of answers, during one of my classroom observations, I asked a student, "What do you enjoy the most about art class?" Without hesitation, they responded, "Coloring!" This response was the same from the majority of students I engaged with.
This popular response among students made me further wonder why the act of coloring brought them joy.
The more I observed with every classroom visit, an answer began to emerge.
The answer was hidden in the PROCESS!
Read more about Mitali’s story by clicking here- https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7100801500217524225
?? Saturday Art Class at Harvard!
Recently, our co-founder Manasi Mehan shared with the world about the beginning of a new journey at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. She shares,
‘Saturday Art Class has always been a purpose that's inspired not just me but those around me. Now, I have the opportunity to weave this passion within an international fabric, learn from the best, and then bring that enriched understanding back to India. While I am here, the mission of Saturday Art Class in India continues to thrive on the ground!"
Read more from Manasi here- https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7098327624841609216
August 2023 was an exhilarating journey for all of us at Saturday Art Class, and as we welcome September, we're gearing up to embrace new stories, boundless opportunities, and a whirlwind of emotions.
Farewell, August - you've been a blast!