On the 3rd of May, Grade 6 and 7 went on a fieldtrip to meet Vulcan Art Gallery owner Manan Kholi and to visit Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s Summer Palace in the city of Amritsar. It was an interdisciplinary fieldtrip combining Art with Science. The organizing teachers were Hanna Waite (ART) and Shalu Deora (STEM).
Manan is an artist himself and is passionate about helping other artists showcase their work worldwide. He believes that art has the capacity to deeply connect people to reality and authenticity and wishes to inspire others and bring a positive change in society by organizing art workshops and vacations for both adults and children.
We met Manan outside the Summer Palace at 10 am. He took us inside the palace for a visit before guiding us around the garden. Manan instructed the children to gather natural materials, such as leaves, bark, sticks and flowers to be used in a workshop he had planned for us. The children ran around the garden looking for materials whilst at the same time investigating how nature changes over time and how transformation occurs in organic materials. When we were done gathering materials Manan brought us to a local gallery and art space called “Timeless Amritsar Art Space” where he instructed the children to create an artwork from the natural materials they had collected.
Afterwards we visited the gallery and looked at the paintings on display. The children were instructed to choose a favourite painting on which they later wrote an analysis back in the classroom. We had a great morning and a wonderful experience, talking about science, creating art and visiting an art gallery for the first time! Well done everyone!
