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As I entered the class, I remember the children rejoicing India's win in Women's World Cup. They were in a super cheerful mood and were curious as to what art materials we had brought for that day. I could sense they were in a rush to get things started. It felt like a tense cricket match and we were trying our best to quench their curiosity. Ashik showed a book made by children of Mumbai in a project called Dharavi Art room; the young artists had painted what home means

This Sunday afternoon started with the boys happily entering the art class asking us "tell us the plan for this week! what materials have you brought?" It felt like we had to wear skates on our feet and start the class as soon as possible. It was a zealous and lovely welcome for all of us volunteers and the children got ready to make foldable zines. The class started with all of us watching Navarasam , a music video by Thaikkudam bridge. The video showed through beautiful

An accordion is a musical instrument that is played by stretching and squeezing with hands. Week 3 of art class started with us showing some accordion zines we made to the children. One of the zines we showed was about Yayoi Kusama, an artist who used dots to represent art. This stirred curiosity in the classroom and we could see the boys wanting to learn how to cut and fold and make a similar accordion zine. Zines are short for magazines. The idea of zines got popu

"Karai Nallathu" - This is one tagline that's etched in my memory from my childhood. It means "Mess is good" and it is from an advertisement that streamed around 15 years ago. I believe the same applies to art - messy art is great art. An artist needs not just the right techniques and materials. They mainly need the courage to make a mess, the curiosity to try something new and the creative confidence to express oneself In week 2 of Kutty Kutty Stories, this was our int

Note to new readers of our blog: Kutty Kutty stories is a zine making workshop for 30 adolescent boys of a shelter home in Coimbatore. Around 3 years back, I took a picture book called Mr. Big to read the children we work with. I was teaching four 7th standard children at that time and it was a beautiful experience reading along with them. One boy who could read well got the book and read line by line while the other three boys tried to understand the meaning. They picked up

Dear reader, welcome to our first blog post. Kutty Kutty Stories is an art program for 30 adolescent children residing at a shelter home in Coimbatore. I am Chandhni S, a social worker residing in Coimbatore. Along with Ashik Jaffer-Ali, an artist and art educator, I initiated this program in October this year to teach children zine-making and express their voice through art. Along with our team of keen volunteers, we conduct art classes for the children every Sunday for 2 h