Nagpur: Basoli, an art-based group for children, has organized an activity that involves both — children and their parents — to mark its 44th anniversary at Pt Bachhraj Vyas School from 8am to 6pm on May 13.
Chandrakant Channe, a well known artist and founder of Basoli says, “The theme of the activity is word, dialogue and transformation. Around 85 parents and 90 children will be taking part. I have divided them into 10 groups for this purpose.”
Channe is working on the slogan of ‘Happy parents, happy children’, developed by Centre of Cultural Resources and Training under HRD ministry. “Numerous cultural activities like dance, drama, art and theatre can be organized under this programme in which both parents and children are to be involved,” he says.
“I have invited parents to send me two words of their choice. I have so far received words like dream, fantasy, air and window which parents and children in each group will discuss for the first two hours to develop a theme. Once a theme has been decided, the parents will leave and the children will be asked to transform it on paper through art work. They will also have the freedom to improvise upon a theme,” Channe adds.
The art work created through this activity will be made into a presentation by Channe which he will sent to Centre of Cultural Resources and Training.
Formed on May 15, 1975 with 42 members, Basoli today has a membership of 1.5 lakh. Over the past four decades, numerous activities have been organized by the group during summer vacations and on Sundays.
“I had once given the topic ‘Ghar yaad aata hai’ to children in which they had to paint houses made of acrylic sheets. Their imagination took me by surprise as the results were stunning. A huge image of Ravan was made by 150 students in a 100ftx100ft ground. Another memorable activity was of making an integrated train which had coaches depicting various festivals of India,” Channe reminisces.
Sanjay Khalatkar, a college professor, says, “I joined Basoli when I was in Std V and today both my children are also members of this group. I remember once, as a child, we were given the subject of painting how India would be in the 21st century and I had shown cars being parked on roof tops. Today, multi-level car parking is a reality,” he says, adding that Basoli activities helped him develop a vision.
In 40 years, numerous activities have been organized by Basoli group in summer vacations and Sundays