HYDERABAD : Hosting its second Bala Kala Vikas event, M Eshwaraiah Art Gallery brings back a fun and educational experience where children can enjoy their summer vacation while honing their artistic skills. Bala Kala Vikas 2024, held at ES Art Gallery, Exhibition Grounds, Nampally, featured paintings from students of various schools in and around Hyderabad.
With the aim of encouraging and promoting students aged 6 to 18 in the field of art, Sanjay Kumar, director of M Eshwaraiah Art Gallery, has been hosting Bala Kala Vikas since 2023. The goal is to inspire youngsters to showcase their abilities and teach various art methods during the workshops. “Every child is a gifted soul to mankind, and each has a unique talent. Children aged 6 to 18 are interested and capable of learning a variety of art methods. These programmes provide an opportunity for the child and us to discover children with special talents,” said Sanjay Kumar.
The first part of the exhibition featured around 160 paintings on different themes and mediums of the students’ choice. Ninety students from fifty schools expressed their exceptional talent and unique thoughts. The exhibition showcased themes such as nature, wildlife, landscape, portraits, and more. From innocent drawings of huts, rivers, and trees to explorations of wildlife and divinity, the exhibition provides space for every evolving artist.
Additionally, children participated in various workshops ranging from pencil sketching to calligraphy, curated by artists—K B Indira, Lalitha, Ram Prathap Kalipatnapu, Maredu Ramu, Shamshuddin, and Nivedita Chakraborty. Each workshop was a three-hour session where children delved into the intricacies of a particular medium. For example, K B Indira’s Fabric Painting workshop teached the basics to advanced techniques required to master the medium. Lalitha’s expertise in quilling art, a beautiful form of rolling and gluing paper, was an absolute fun for children. Maredu Ramu, with approximately 15 years of experience in the terracotta style, demonstrated the use of natural clay and techniques to mold it into art.
Shamshuddin’s calligraphy workshop focused on encouraging children’s creativity, especially in lettering, to develop good handwriting and create attractive and beautiful letters. Similarly, Nivedita Chakraborty’s workshop captured the essence of nature, characters of different places, and surrounding objects using watercolours. Ram Prathap Kalipatnapu’s workshop demonstrated the intricacies of pencil sketching.
Speaking about the event, Ram Prathap Kalipatnapu said, “Bala Kala Vikas is a good platform because it brings together different types of art in one place to educate children and bring out the artist in them. By arranging a display of the paintings and the art they have learned so far, they will practice how to do new things by looking at the paintings by other children, thus increasing their knowledge.”
