SMAAS tours and travels to support the initiative

SMAAS tours and travels based in Tirur, Malappuram district has announced its partnership in inviting sketches for the Puzha Malayalam book. A well known DMC in Malabar region, SMAAS has been supporting Nila Foundation's various initiatives for a while now. On 22 APR 2010, they are hiring space at Thunjan parambu to organise a workshop similar to summer camps that we shared in the previous blog posts. About 20 youngsters will be sketching on the theme of "my river".

Mohammed Baven, entrepreneurial proprietor of SMAAS tours and travels said, "It's with great pleasure that we are joining the initiative. We will be canvasing in all regions we are active to inspire people to contribute to sketches. As a first step, we have organised to have a workshop in Tirur Thunjan Parambu. We are also been discussing the possibilities of approaching the public with a chart paper and black ink pen asking people to sketch in locations like taxi stand. "

Crowd-sourcing of sketches can't get better. More details of SMAAS tours and travels can be found here.

Karuvanchal high school and more

Prakash, co-ordinator of Puzha Malayalam publishing just returned from another small workshop where students from Karuvanchal high school got together to sketch 'my river' as part of the global competition we are organising. Selected sketches from the entries will adorn the introductory pages of 14 chapters in the book. The last date for sending in the entry is on 25th of APR 2010. Nila foundation also has finalised the list of judges for selecting the sketches. MT. Vasudevan Nair, Artist Madanan, CN Karunakaran, Cartoonist Venu, CK Sujith Kumar, Dr. Latha Unnikrishnan and C Jayakumar will be meeting together on the 27th Apr to chose the winners. More details here.

'Desodharana Vayana Sala', a public library situated in Kuttikakkam, between Thalassery and Kannur has announced its intention to organise a sketching workshop for youngsters on the 18th of April. Under the leadership of drawing master Sivadasan, the public library has been organising regular Sunday workshops. The workshop on 18th Apr will start at 0930. For more details contact Sivadasan on +91.97475.68401.

Sargotsvam to organise sketch workshops

'Sargotsavam' a two-month long summer camp for children upto the age of 17 is an initiative from 'Jawahar Bala Bhavan' in Thrissur. An autonomous organisation affiliated to Government of Kerala, over 1,200 students from different parts of the state are attending this camp to explore traditional arts, dances, music and even martial arts. The camp inaugurated by Smt. K.P.A.C Lalita on the first of April 2010, is aimed at providing young children an opportunity to interact with students from different regions of the state.

Shri P.N Bhaskara, principal of Jawahar Bala Bhavan announced a special workshop to sketch 'my river' on 23rd April to enhance the undertanding of students about rivers and to contribute to the competition organised by Nila Foundation. The sketches will compete to be amongst the forteen select images that will adorn the introductory pages of the 14 chapters of the book Puzha Malayalam. The book is to be released on the 05th of June 2010 at Thunjan parambu in Tirur, which is also a day celebrated by the United Nations as World Environment Day.

The last date to send in the sketches for the competition is 25 Apr 2010. Check here for more details.

Two more workshops to sketch

'Prakrithi' summer camp and Chinmaya 'poonkavanam' are the two new entrants to join the series of workshops to do sketches on the theme 'my river'. Prakrithi camp will be organised at Government higher secondary school in Karuvanpoyil in Kozhikode district on the 12 Apr 2010. Workshop will start at 10.30.

Chinmayam mission's summer workshop has been going on for last ten years and this year there will dedicated sessions for youngsters to sketch their interpretations of rivers. the two weeks camp will be conlucded on the 20th Apr. Both the workshop entries will be competing with other entries that are participating in the "My river" sketching competition organised by Nila Foundation.

14 selected sketches will be used to adorn the introductory pages of 14 chapters of the book Puzha Malayalam authored by C.K Sujith Kumar and K. Umadevi. The book is to be released in Thunjan Parambu on 05 June 2010 which is also the world environment day.

Brushmen's to join the river campaign

Amongst many schools and summer camps, the latest entrant to participate in the 'my river' sketching competition is 'Brushmen's school of Arts in South bazaar, Kannur. Managed by Sreejith MC, the summer camp with the focus on rivers will be organised on the 17th of Apr 2010.

It's also a special moment for Brushman's as they are celebrating their siver jubilee year. Certainly an auspicious time to celebrate rivers by inspiring their students to be part of Puzha Malayalam initiative.

Mr. Sreejith completed his Masters in Fine Arts (Sculptures) from Jamia Millia University, Delhi and along with Brushmen's, is also the founder of Malabar Kalakendra institute of visual and performing arts in Kannur district. Sreejith also has ventured into animation technology in 2002.

Mathrubumi newspaper also carried a small story inviting sketches in it's Calicut edition today and we are expecting this to trigger more enquiries. Along with many sketches from Kerala, today we also received a river sketch from a 9 year old girl from Austria.

For more regular updates, check us on twitter.

Dhyana sankalpam students sketch 'my river'

Dhyana Sankalpam mural school in Kozhikode district provided an opportunity for its students to sketch their interpretations of river this Sunday.

This was an initiative to help Nila Foundation find the best 14 sketches to adorn the chapters of its upcoming book Puzha Malayala, a status on rivers in Kerala.

Harikumar, a resource person at the workshop reminisced his memories of rivers during childhood and how much it was part of his life. Unfortunately, he sadly recollected the fact of how rivers are separated from day to day lives of children these days. Deena Kumar, art teacher at the Karuvanpoil higher secondary school interacted with the students on the importance and bio-diversity of the rivers and urged them to express their concerns about river through sketches.

The Hindu newspaper also carried a short feature on the initiative yesterday. Puzha Malayalam, is set to be published on the 5th of June 2010 at Thunjan Parambu.

Anaswara Chitrakala Vidyalayam joins the initiative

The number of summer camps joining together to sketch for the river is rather over-whelming. We just got a confirmation that Anaswara Chitrakala Vidyalayam near Kakkodi in Kozhikode will be organising exclusive workshops in simultaneous locations in Kerala.

Shinoj Kumar, a drawing master by profession, has been regularly organising workshops to nurture the aptitude and talents of youngsters and students. Starting from 4th of April there will be five workshops for students till early May 2010. The workshops are organised for couple of hours only in a day so as to ensure that the students get to enjoy their summer holidays. For more details on future workshops, please contact Shinoj on +91.93888.90548.

For more details on the competition Nila Foundation is organising, please check here

SANS creations - Thrissur to organise sketching workshop

'SANS creations' based out of Thrissur and managed by Ms Jeeja Bhaskar, is dedicating one day of her summer workshop with students to inspire them to sketch 'my river', Out of all the entries recieved from around the world, the best 14 in three different age categories will be chosen to adorn the 14 chapters of the book 'Puzha Malayalam'. The 400-page 'Puzha Malayalam is an exploration of Kerala and her rivers. This is a book that reminds us that the death of its rivers will be death of Kerala itself and the only way to sustain life is by sustaining the rivers of the state.

Ms Jeeja Bhaskar has been running SANS creations for the last two years and have been training students in drawing, painting, clay modelling, fabric painting, embroidery to name a few. She has also been running successful culinary workshop at her school. Jeeja is organising several workshops for the summer vacation this year. She can be contacted on + 91.487.2360.697 or on email.

Similarly, Dhyana Sankalpam mural school in Kozhikode is also organising a specialist workshop for its regular students to sketch on the theme of 'My river'. Check out for more details here.