Indian Art and Design Educators Association’s 5th annual meet at Kochi-Muziris Biennale

Indian Art and Design Educators Association’s 5th annual conference at Kochi-Muziris Biennale
The conference will bring together stakeholders who are passionate about making art an important learning tool in school-based education. Photo: Special arrangement

Kochi: The Indian Art and Design Educators Association (IADEA) will host its fifth annual conference in Kochi on February 16 and 17 in association with the Kochi-Muziris Biennale Art By Children Programme.

The two-day conference will include curated tours at biennale venues with artists whose work is on display, workshops, panel discussions and speaker sessions by renowned art educators at the biennale pavilion and plenty of opportunity to network with fellow art educators from around the country.

The theme of the two-day conference “what is art?” is designed to provoke constructive debate and sharing of ideas. The conference will bring together stakeholders who are passionate about making art an important learning tool in school-based education. Five well known art educators from various parts of the country will share their expertise and six artists who speak to the art educators about their work at the biennale as well as share their ideas in the context of art education in schools. The sessions are designed to provide valuable insights to art teachers, academic coordinators and school administrators keen to enable a greater integration of art within the school curriculum.

Blaise Joseph who heads the Art By Children initiative at KMB said, “The Art by Children Programme of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale is delighted to host the IADEA art educators conference at the biennale pavilion and the various biennale venues. We look forward to the exchange of ideas and best practices in art education in a very special context surrounded by art in all its forms.”

On the relevance of the event, Kriti Sood, Delhi-based founder and director of LAND (Learning through Arts, Narrative and Discourse) and a speaker at the conference said, “The future belongs to young people with an education and the imagination to create. The real purpose of arts education is to create complete human beings capable of leading successful and productive lives in a society. I am looking forward to meeting all the art educators at the IADEA conference at the Kochi Biennale. We hope to see the ripple effect of our dialogue reaching classrooms.”

IADEA is an association of organisations who prioritise art education and contribute to the event by sharing knowledge, speakers and resource material. The Knowledge Partners for the conference are the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA), Land Art Foundation, RainbowFish Studio, Chennai Photo Biennale, Piramal Foundation and Art By Children initiative of Kochi Biennale.

Gayatri Nair, Founding Trustee of Chennai Photo Biennale and speaker at the upcoming event said the Chennai Photo Biennale is thrilled to present the works of lens-based artists from India and Wales at the TKM warehouse at Kochi-Muziris Biennale. “At the IADEA conference, I will share some of our programmes and success stories. We would love to invite all the teachers at the conference to join our network of educators who use photography and media-arts in the classroom,” she added.

This year the event will be limited to 75 participating art educators. Art teachers from any school is welcome to join. Registration is highly subsided and will include a networking lunch, tea, art supplies for the workshops as well as transport by van to further venues. The Kochi-Muziris biennale this year has 90 artists from 38 countries at 14 venues, educators who would like time to visit all venues should plan to stay on an extra day and explore. All attendees will need to register at www.arteducatorsindia.com for any enquiries please call +91 99520 18542.

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