ICMHS Blogs

"# Exploring Art & Tradition – Fifteen (15) Cultural Activities for Creative Learners\r\n\r\nFor a creative individual, it’s important to have exposure to the best practices around the world. Equally, it’s necessary to be aware of the traditions, stories, and cultural aspects of their own local area. During the years of schooling, how can we prepare an individual’s mind to be more imaginative? More sensitive, more humane, more fertile with innovative thinking, and able to carry forward the spark of being uniquely rational with ideas?\r\n\r\nRespecting each faculty's need in our world is a concern today — starting from designing a simple, useful, lightweight pen for writing to an ideal classroom, a happy environment in school/college to a sustainable lifestyle, urban planning to resource management in rural areas, developing high-rise architecture to designing a heavy-duty bridge — all while being conscious about saving water and protecting green forests. \r\n\r\nThe initial years one spends in any school/institution give formal training to be fit in the world/market, but is our present formal institutionalized educational pedagogy planned enough to inspire young minds to be enriched and equipped to facilitate a learning environment where, through creative practices, we nurture the future responsible thinkers and decision-makers?\r\n\r\nHere are some arenas where we can focus upon and take classroom discussions forward formally/informally with students to engage them in researching, reading, seeing, and appreciating the world around them during their formative years in school — holistically.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\n## 1. Know Your Campus Architecture\r\nIn this module, students are encouraged to see and explore the school’s campus. To support their observation skills and enhance drawing & sketching techniques, they are also asked to do outdoor & indoor sketching and perspective understanding. During one of these sessions, they are introduced to the architect who designed their school’s campus and learn how essential this discipline of architecture is to support a growing society.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\n## 2. Know Your Campus Garden\r\nIn this module, students are advised to visit and explore the campus garden in different seasons. Later, they are asked to reflect upon their favourite flower’s colour, shape, and origin story. While keeping a visual record in their drawing files, they begin to build an interest in natural history. Observation in the garden also draws attention to butterflies, bees, insects, and worms simultaneously.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\n## 3. Know Your Local Museum\r\nRegular museum visits play a pivotal role in opening new horizons. Knowing history through art objects displayed around, reflecting upon socio-economic changes, and appreciating & copying great masters’ paintings/sculptures provides an interesting entry point to subjects like anthropology, archaeology, history of art, traditional art forms, and crafts.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\n## 4. Know Your Food\r\nSometimes a potluck party among classmates or a curated food walk can be beneficial. Students can make and keep visual documentation in their drawing files of their favourite food. This also provides an elaborate opportunity to learn about the history of a particular dish, its tradition, lifestyle, agriculture, and economics.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\n## 5. Know Your Spices in Food\r\nA walk can be arranged in the local spice market (for example, Khari-Baoli in Old Delhi) with a group of students to experience the importance of spices in regular cuisine. This activity engages the mind to map interconnections through food and develop curiosity about the world while tracing the threads of human travel history.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\n## 6. Know Your Locality\r\n“Draw/Map your own route from home to school.” \r\nThis practice nurtures geographical understanding and invites students to slow down and reflect upon nuances like observing the regular soundscape, memory through smell, and seeing & locating through sound.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\n## 7. Know Your Dress\r\nResiding in India allows an individual to understand different communities, festivals, collective faiths, and traditions. A country with a vast tapestry of colours and fabrics invites students to appreciate and carry forward the legacy and warmth of draping and designing garments.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\n## 8. Know Your Favourite Player\r\nDuring school days, some students are fascinated by portrait painting and caricature-making. Introducing well-known players from different sports (like Football, Hockey, Lawn Tennis, Chess, etc.) and learning about their personal journeys engages young artists and excites them to learn new portraiture techniques.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\n## 9. Know Your Favourite Filmmaker\r\nWatching good short films (fiction, non-fiction, or animation) from different parts of the world encourages individuals to explore visual communication, share personal views on narrative building, and appreciate the magic of storytelling.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\n## 10. Know Your Favourite Musician\r\nListening and grooving to music from different corners of the world and attending regular concerts familiarizes students not only with global music trends but also helps them realize the power of words and rhythm to weave emotions and communicate across cultures.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\n## 11. Know Your Favourite Dancer\r\nAn introduction to different forms of dance allows young students to appreciate both traditional and contemporary expressions of human movement.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\n## 12. Know Your Favourite Poet\r\nRegular reading sessions of various poets’ works enhance visualization skills and creatively sharpen the imagination.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\n## 13. Know Your Favourite Photographer\r\nPhotography, as a medium of visual communication, can be practiced to explore the possibilities of visual storytelling. Showcasing the works of renowned photographers through slideshows or exhibitions can create awareness and inspire young minds.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\n## 14. Know Your Favourite Theatre Actor\r\nWatching and participating in theatre enhances dialogue delivery skills and grooms young individuals to be socially and culturally rooted, developing empathy and understanding.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\n## 15. Know Your Favourite Puppeteer\r\nPuppetry, as a storytelling medium, has existed across regions and eras. During a puppetry workshop, students can learn about different puppet types used to express human emotions and may be inspired to develop their own productions using creative materials and methods.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\n### ✨ Conclusion\r\nAll of these fifteen (15) cultural activities can be practiced joyfully with students, keeping in mind their age, receptiveness, and ability to respond — under the able guidance of passionate teachers, educators, or facilitators.\r\n"