IGNOU to launch world’s first sand art certificate course in March, 2018

IGNOU will be launching world’s first online certificate course in sand art in March, 2018.

IGNOU: The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) will now help internationally acclaimed sand artist Sudarshan Pattnaik’s dream come true by launching world’s first online certificate course in sand art in March, 2018. The announcement regarding the same was made almost a year back. Work has already been started and video lectures have also been prepared.

Shrikant Mohapatra, senior regional director of IGNOU Bhubaneshwar centre told PTI, “It has to be fine-tuned as per MOOC’S (massive open online courses) norms.”

Pattnaik said he wanted India to become the first country across the globe to offer such training to sand artists, who, he noted, “were growing in number”.

Platform for budding sand artists

“I want to give a platform to upcoming sand artists. I have submitted the course design and syllabus and now will
fine tune this. I “I had been waiting for their response for over a year and now they have given me assurance that the course will begin in March 2018,” he told PTI.

Yesterday, Uma Kanjilal of MOOC visited Bhubaneshwar and finalised the modalities with Pattnaik. The artist, who already has an open air Golden Sand Art Institute at Puri beach imparting professional training in sand art, believes a digitised course will help students hone their skills by following instructional videos.

He believes that sand art is essentially a practical art and the more you practice, the more you learn.

“The videos will have all the details and step-by-step procedure of making sculptures in sand,” he said. According to him due to the absence of the required academic background, several brilliant sand artists lag behind.

“This course will be very fruitful for them,” the Padma Shri award-winning sculptor said. However, the artist insists it is important that the initiative be taken by a government institute like IGNOU to have a larger impact.

“I have many offers from private universities but I wanted to start with IGNOU, because it will have a wider
reach,” he said.