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Plan to upgrade Sunday Art Schools

BHUBANESWAR: The Orissa Lalit Kala Akademi, the apex and autonomous body of the State for fine art, has proposed to upgrade the Sunday Art Schools operating under it in the State into colleges with graduate and post graduate programmes.

It has also another plan to claim the status of a deemed university.

Akademi secretary Chandramani Biswal told The Hindu that the proposed academic programmes are being mooted to suit to the needs of the art education aspirants from different walks of life. It would have flexibility, he said and explained that there would not be any age limit for the students and the courses would be designed to suit the leisure of the employed and even of the housewives.

If implemented, Orissa would be the first State in the country to launch such an innovative art education programmes, the secretary claimed.

The State has 78 Sunday Art Schools which are being run by various non-governmental organisations and are affiliated to the Akademi. “As a collaborative initiative of the government and the non-government organisations, we plan to upgrade these institutions into colleges and offer affiliation as the Pracheen Kala Kendra of Chandigarh has been doing throughout the country,” Mr. Biswal explained.

The syllabus is being prepared keeping in mind the contemporary art scenario, employability and availability of time for the students to pursue the courses, he added.

Government recognition will encourage students, both young and old, in large numbers to go for the Sunday art schools and colleges. This will further generate self-employment for the qualified art teachers, he hoped. The scheme will also help aspirants to avail higher education in art and craft throughout the State.

The Sunday Art Schools are offering preparatory course of one year that is being followed by a two-year junior certificate course and the senior certificate course of two years duration, Mr. Biswal informed.

Addition of the bachelors and masters degree programmes in visual art will help the Akademi to vie for a deemed university status, he said.

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