Past Perfect

And to do that,they are conducting workshops for children aged between 8 and 13 years on visual art,performing art and storytelling.

So,kids can let their imagination run wild to create their own myths and draw miniature paintings of them,experience storytelling through dance,learn terracotta clay modelling,make water colour paintings of the Indo-Saracenic architecture of the museum and also learn calligraphy. There are over 30 practitioners of various art forms coming to conduct the workshops,all aimed at helping children understand and appreciate the museum and its pieces of heritage in a fun way.

Madhumita Srivastava,a qualified fine artist who will use visual triggers to get the kids to create original myths,says,“Kids nowadays have an overload of information that is collected through seeing television or going places. They only ‘see’ most of the time and do nothing about it. If we channelise that,it pays off to see the end result.”

Helping the kids transform their original myths into miniature paintings will be art historian Manjiri Thakoor,who believes that all kids have an inborn skill for painting that needs to be explored. “They will be shown the museum and the Indian miniature paintings. That will be their inspiration to draw their own paintings of the myth. Traditional Indian art has fancy borders,decorative figures and a variety of colours once the kids are aware of the basics,they can then create something totally out of the world.”

Other sessions include calligraphy by Sarang Kulkarni,terracotta clay modelling by Parsuram Kumbhar,story telling by Gauri Rao and water colour painting by young contemporary artists. The workshop has been divided into two modules of three days each— the first one starting from May 18 and the second starting from May 25.

The workshops will also allow young minds to wander beyond their normal boundaries of television,video games,movies and help them tap into their imagination and create something very different. As Srivastava says,“The sky is the limit and the creations are always a surprise.”

(Registration forms will be available at the museum’s office/publication counter between 11 am and 4 pm on all days. Registrations can also be done at The Pomegranate Workshop (Dadar West) on the same days and timings. Seats are limited and entry will be given on first-come-first-served basis. For details,call the museum at 2284 4484,2284 4519)