What makes our art fest experience special? - A student speaks

Art fests, they are a celebration of art that wouldn't be taken seriously just a decade ago. There are young artists all over India now earning a living from doing what they love: setting up art fairs and exhibitions, curating art shows, using their skills commercially and creatively as the world wakes up and identifies the need of imagination.

But have you truly explored what the word art entails, especially with the pressure of time, spontaneity and presenting a marketable idea as a pitch? I think Chiaroscuro can offer that opportunity to you. This fest isn’t only about fine art and painting, it aims to appeal to the younger generation- students who are aspiring artists. So we came up with quirky ways to apply art and design to our competitions.

For example:

We took straightforward and modern activity, like T-shirt design, and added something special and traditional into the recipe, like painting Madhubani designs on it based on a given topic.

You could also experiment with different "canvases", like shoes. Last year, the topic for the shoe art competition was to design shoes based on emotion, with a color scheme to match it. Then we added marketing to the mix so participants provide a sales pitch to convince judges into purchasing their shoe design.

Another example was the face painting competition. Again, it seems straightforward, so to add a twist, the topic was to make them two- faced. We got impressive outputs in this, ranging from abstract nature based paintings to paintings of a layman on one side of the person’s face and Joker (from DC’s Batman) on the other (that was my favourite).

If competitions aren’t something you’re into, we also have joint activities. Last year many young artists from schools all over Bangalore got to meet and interact with each other, and meld their creativity into one community Mandala.

Are you still trying to find your way in art? We had artists come in a talk about their professions and have interactive sessions with the workshop participants.  

As years go by, the number of participants increase because we’ve created a platform for young artists to interact and meet each other, learn new things from workshops or simply see the artwork done by other people, and have fun doing what they love. So spread the joy of art, its a ripple effect.

~Dhriti arjun, Grade 9 student and former cultural leader.