Interdisciplinary Approaches in Indian Art Education with Reference to Visual Art Practices

An art practitioner of today is an author, a performer, an educator and a social activist. In a world where an artist adorns multiple roles, they can no longer be confined to exclusive disciplines. When different art practices engage with each other, do these interdisciplinary approaches connect with an audience beyond the level of aesthetic pleasure? How are interdisciplinary practices understood? After all, why is it important to look at such practices?

Our engagement with art and related disciplines is deeply influenced by the way we are taught how to look and interact with it, especially in institutions of art. Are there rifts within the practice and the pedagogical realm? How do we address it or make a connection between them through our activities as a collective? The talk series on interdisciplinary approaches in visual arts and the panel discussion followed will investigate a whole range of interdisciplinary artistic practices and pedagogical procedures involved in visual art milieu.

While the importance of interdisciplinary art practices has been a widely discussed topic, does art education equip us with the necessary resources and infrastructure for the same? Hence it becomes important to discuss these versatile artistic approaches by mapping the contemporary currents in the field. By bringing together distinguished artists and art educators who work in diverse fields, we aim to create dialogue across schools of different practices. Our panellists Suresh BV, Sanchayan Ghosh, Shivaji Panikkar and Shukla Sawant with moderator Shatavisha Mustafi will be exploring different aspects of art education giving us a broader view of these approaches. Through our panel discussion, we intend to analyse further, reflect and archive these multiple avenues via open access.