By Cathy Palmer, Director of Education, Seattle International Children’s Festival
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In October special education students in Ms. Kernell's and Ms. Emmett's classes made murals to exchange with students at a school for the developmentally disabled in Ranchi, India. The exchange was part of a series organized within the past seven years by Victoria Shaw of The Mural Project, an international arts and culture exchange program designed to give school children both in the U.S. and abroad the opportunity to explore cultures around the world. Murals have been exchanged between students from Washington State and those in Otjiwarongo (Namibia), Mussoorie (India), Kathmandu (Nepal), Oaxaca (Mexico), Arusha (Tanzania), Livingstone (Zambia), Fez (Morocco), Malaga (Spain), and Sukhothai (Thailand). This exchange was the first between developmentally disabled students, and was planned by the International Arts Consortium to involve special education students at HIMS more broadly in Consortium activities and to complement the mural-making project being undertaken by Ms. McCreary’s sixth grade Spanish students with artist-in-residence Fulgencio Lazo.
Supplies for The Mural Project are deliberately kept very simple (butcher paper, crayons, and markers), so that groups in each country can work with the same materials (Ms. Shaw brings paper, markers, and crayons with her to the schools abroad participating in the exchanges). Students at HIMS began the project by watching a short video of a previous exchange in Nepal and were then invited to draw whatever they liked—a favorite person or animal, place or food to help students in India understand their lives in the United States. Students were encouraged to fill the entire space, and teachers were required to contribute a drawing (Ms. Kernell's, a drawing of Mt. Rainier and surrounding forests). The only rule: don't draw on top of someone else's drawing! Ms. Shaw, a professional photographer and documentary filmmaker, took both still photographs and video as they drew and talked with her about their drawings.
The exchange
in Ranchi was carried out by a volunteer group of present and past staff members
at Seattle International Children’s Festival, which has ties in the city
to Kunjban, a folk music and dance troupe which performed at the 2001 Festival.
(At the very last minute, Ms. Shaw could not accompany the group, when her visa
to enter India was delayed in the mail). Mr. Mukund Nayak, leader of Kunjban,
arranged the exchange at Deepshikha, a school founded by four women in 1988,
run for the first four years in the front room of the director’s home,
and now housed in a two-story building and adjoining courtyard off a typically
bustling street in the heart of Ranchi. The only school of its type in the new
state of Jharkhand (formerly southern Bihar, a region just west of Calcutta),
Deepshikha serves fifty children, from ages 6 to 21, in six heterogeneous groupings.
It also provides early identification and outreach for some 400 young children
in the community, training for special education teachers and caregivers, and
services to integrate 100 children in regular classrooms. The staff and volunteers
are deeply committed to expanding opportunities for their students: one group
of disabled students had just returned from a two-week trip to Delhi (without
their parents!) for a bocce-ball competition.
The delegation from Seattle was welcomed in the courtyard, under sunny skies (weather in northern India in late October is quite predictably pleasant, comparable to Seattle in late July). Students of all ages worked around three tables. The Deepshikha staff was delighted by this straightforward project: according to the teachers, having the students draw together, outside, brought new concentration and enthusiasm to the students' work. The teachers kept laughing and shaking their heads that it took people from halfway around the world to introduce such a simple but beneficial method. When students finished drawing, they took time to examine and discuss the two murals from HIMS students, which teachers had displayed on one of the long walls of the courtyard. Deepshikha students then presented a short performance of songs and skits that they had practiced for the occasion.
The murals
from Ranchi were formally presented to the HIMS special education students on
January 22, 2003.
The International Arts Consortium is a partnership of Hamilton International Middle School and John Stanford International School with a variety of arts organizations, individual artists, arts consultants, and community representatives. It was convened and is led by Seattle International Children’s Festival. Major funding for the Consortium comes from the Washington State Arts Commission Community Consortia Grant program, with matching funds and services from Seattle International Children’s Festival, the PTSAs at HIMS and JSIS, the International Business Breakfast, and other grant funding. Matching funding for this project was provided by present and former staff members of SICF, who donated their time and all expenses to carry out the exchange in India. Seattle’s Family & Education Levy contributed to the celebration of these projects through the Family Partnership program of the Seattle Public Schools.
Thanks to Cathy Palmer for the pictures from Ranchi, India.