Nayar’s installation is the latest in several such, placed strategically on school campuses to integrate art into the environment and promote a holistic approach to learning that goes beyond purely academic subjects.Which is why at the Shiv Nadar School campus in Adyar, British artist Steve Messam’s ‘spiked auto’ attempts to stimulate conversations about art, while at the American International School Chennai (AISC), a larger-thanlife mural, a collaboration by graffiti artist A-kill and the students, encourages creative expression.
“Art allows young minds to open up and allows them to embody creativity in their daily lives,” says Nayar. “When I was working on the installation on campus, a student pointed to the infinite symbol and said that when she looked at it, she felt anything was possible.” For the installation, Nayar has incorporated symbols from different learning modules, which get progressively abstract as you climb the floors from primary school to higher secondary. So you’ve got an abacus on the ground floor, and symbols of cloud computing at the higher level.
“Art installations provide students with a unique opportunity to engage with visual and sensory stimuli,” says Padmini Sambasivam, principal of Shiv Nadar School. “Messam’s installation serves as a stimulus to critical thinking, imagination and emotional intelligence.”
Kiran Nadar, founder and chairperson of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, which brought Messam’s installation to the school, calls it “an investment for the future, cultivating a vibrant atmosphere that inspires young minds to explore and express themselves through art”. At KC High in Navalur, teachers and students work together on installations displayed around the school. For example, a giant tree with leaves made of hexagonal ceramic tiles with portraits of students who have graduated, ‘growing’ it with each passing year. “Art installations on campus change the dynamics of the space,” says Diana Shathish, arts educator and art therapist at the school. “The children are happier and calmer as they walk around it or touch it.”
The AISC campus has works by several local artists such as Padma Shri awardee Puducherry-based sculptor V K Munusamy and ceramic artist Koilpitchai Prabhakar. Among them is a terracotta horse by Munuswamy, among the world’s largest, measuring 17.5ft. The school regularly brings in local artists to teach various art forms and then displays the works on campus.
Art helps improve critical thinking in children, says expressive arts therapist Magdalene Jeyarathnam. “So, the more art they have around them the more they learn to look at deeper meanings, to analyse, to see beyond what is on the surface.” Also, says Jeyarathnam, installations from discarded material remind children there is beauty in everything – the rejected and the seemingly useless.