The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Promoting art with a social purpose

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Friday, Aug 22, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Promoting art with a social purpose

K. Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy

-PHOTO: NAGARA GOPAL

Catching them young: Students at the Rural Art Centre in Hyderguda.

HYDERABAD: Operating from a small two-room building, ‘Sanskriti’ has won worldwide acclaim for taking students from weaker sections of society towards a career of colours and sketches.

“We visited government schools and also roamed in streets gathering children for our art classes,” recollected B.A. Reddy, art teacher and founder-visionary of ‘Rural Art Centre’ at Hyderguda near Rajendranagar. His vision was not just aesthetic, but also had a social purpose.

“Thanks to their new interest in art, many children reluctantly went back to school, as they had to finish it to be qualified for higher studies in fine arts,” he said. Mr. Reddy who had groomed 18 Soviet Land - Nehru awardees at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Golconda, still remembers how his wards returned from the USSR with abundant confidence after spending a month in international art camps.

Free training

He wanted to extend the artistic traits to children from poor families at Hyderguda, a poor village 15 years ago, and provided free training to the children.

“Many children went back school and finished schooling to purse higher studies in fine arts,” he said.

The story of V. Jangaiah testifies for the change brought about by art education. Due to lack of proficiency in English, he could finish matriculation and Intermediate only after repeated attempts.

Now, he is in his final year of Bachelor of Fine Arts at Potti Sri Ramulu Telugu University.

Established in 1993, ‘Sanskriti’ sent students to prestigious institutes such as MS University, Baroda, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University and the University of Hyderabad, besides being instrumental for them receiving awards from more than 30 countries.

The institute has also set benchmarks in children’s category of art.

Its carving arts’ studio, which operates from a small room, is accorded a place of prominence at many international festivals and has won top prizes from some of the major international children’s painting competitions like Bitola Grand Prix -1999, Skopje Grand Prix -2003, the Rose of Lidce award, Gold Fish award at Art Olympics, Bratislava in 2004 and Ukraine Grand Prix-2007 to name a few.

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