BENGALURU: Over the last couple of months, 18 children in Richards Town, including those of pourakarmikas, have spent hours at the railway station, colonial bungalows and church, sketching its elements. On Saturday, their art work made it to the wall of the dilapidated railway wall, which was once a garbage strewn, broken-down structure, bringing it alive simply through colour and imagination.
The initiative was conceived when the Richards Town Residents Association (RTRA), came across the Neighbourhood 360 project by India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), which gave them a grant of `25,000 to go ahead with the project. And when they were in need for some, they turned to a paint company requesting sponsorship.
Armed with a proactive team and a go-ahead from civic agencies, Anaheeta Pinto, brand content consultant, along with the children took inspiration from colonial buildings as well as from the works of renowned illustrator and Richards Town resident Paul Fernandes.
The children were first introduced to each other at Richards Park where they played a few get-to-know-each-other games. They also met Aditya Fernandes, Project Design Lead at ‘Apaulogy’ – Paul Fernandes’ design studio located in Richards Town – where they were introduced to Paul’s body of work. Both Paul and Aditya spoke to them about noticing details and sketching what they see. Thereafter, the children began a supervised walk through Richards Town, making five 20-minute stops to observe and sketch.
At the end of part one, sketch books were handed over to Aditya Fernandes. The wall design has at least one sketch from every child’s book. While the outline work was done using a projector last week, the children painted the wall over the weekend.
“It really brings out the diversity of Richards Town, especially since we brought together students from Clarence High School, children from the neighbourhood and even kids of pourakarmikas. There was some initial apprehension among the pourakarmikas about what we would be doing with the children,” she says, adding that later they were “thrilled with their children participating, and they too voluntarily came together to paint a ‘black spot’ further down the children’s wall.”