Art and craft are mediums of expression that make every heart fill with joy, especially when done collectively. At our community library at Chimbel, Thursdays are all about art, craft and books for children. My sessions at this site began in January this year and have been met with a great deal of excitement. The idea of the Thursday sessions at Mobile Outreach Programme (MOP), Chimbel is to build children’s interest in reading through art and craft activities. Through these sessions, children experience various art and craft forms that aim to bring them closer to books and reading. Each session starts with browsing through books and at times, the activities are story or book based.
My first session in January was a free-hand drawing activity where children had to create their impressions of the library. We provided cartridge sheets and soft pastels, and left the rest to the children’s imagination. They each had an art piece that was different and yet so similar to each other. They drew books, the library room and scenes from stories in vibrant colours.
The next collaborative art piece in the second session was a map of the route from children’s homes to the library. And oh! So delightfully, they each had a lot to talk about while drawing. They mentioned a school, and a pharmacy, the animals on the street – cows, dogs, cats and crows; one boy was obsessed with the red car he sees every day. The resulting drawing was an elaborate pattern of roads linking to the library structure in the center. Yasin (a student from Std II) even left white lines in the middle of the road to show the highway.
From the very first session, it has always been a joy to think up things to do with them. Whether they would like craft today, or art or even a little bit of both; whether an idea is too difficult or completely unrelated to the library; thinking of activities to do is quite enjoyable. In the process, as Resource Persons, we see many art and craft activities that have the potential to excite and ignite the children’s young minds into a continued interest in reading.
These sessions have allowed for my self-growth too. I feel much more confident in facilitating the sessions and see scope for growth in terms of creating sessions where art and craft draw children towards books. I have had a chance to help children bring to paper what they imagine and visualise. In the beginning, there would be a couple of children, sitting away from others in the corner, saying they are unable to draw. But now, with encouragement, they proudly show their work – a wonderful feeling for me! Even the children who were afraid of their drawings not being good enough have now been able to unhesitatingly bring to me what they are creating. And in doing so, the children have become more a part of the library. An experience like this is something I will remember and carry forward to build on for years to come.
