As part of the India Habitat Centre’s outreach programme, the Visual Arts Gallery has been conducting short-term art courses titled “The Art Workshop”. First workshop of the year began on the 1st of April. As part of this workshop, Gagandeep Singh, a postgraduate in Fine Arts from a UK university, taught students drawing and sketching. Since the launch two years ago, the three-month long art workshops have been a great success. Art lovers of all age groups, ranging from art students who are preparing to enter esteemed art institutes like the College of Art, School of Planning and Architecture, National Institute for Design to school-going children who are keen to learn art at a young age, and even retired citizens trying to explore their creativity, all have found the workshop of much use. Four such workshops were conducted last year by Manil Gupta, a former student of College of Art. The workshops deal with subjects like basic handling of the medium, improving observation through contours, blind contours and cross contour drawing; perspective and foreshortening in drawing, still life studies, basic color theory along with out door trips to study architectural monuments, foliage, etc. They are conducted at the Palm Court Conference room, or the IHC Director’s Conference room. A number of students have attended more than one such workshop, and in fact, five of them were given awards for outstanding work at the Annual Awards Function at the IHC in 2005, one of them being Gagandeep himself, who took the classes himself and subsequently went to UK to pursue further studies in art.

The next Art Workshop starts in July 2006. Age limit of participants is 18 & above. The duration of the workshop is 12 weeks with classes every Sunday from 11 am –2pm at the Palm Court Conference room, India Habitat Centre.

For details and registration contact Visual Arts Gallery Office # 24682001-09 ext: 2037/2038 Or Gagandeep Singh: # 9312283409