Art-Connect is a tool to strengthen the effectiveness of our Art for Educator program by adopting a low-tech intervention and digitizing our engagement with educators. Try our Chatbot here! An interactive chatbot tool by Saturday Art Class that enhances our engagement with educators across India. It efficiently disseminates resources and collects real-time data, driving program enhancement. As a pivotal component of our Art-for-Educator program, it creates access to multilingual resources and live support on WhatsApp, supporting educators to effectively implement Visual Arts and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) classes for children. Understand more about the resources we dissiminate through out chatbot here! Our curriculum Understand more about our Art for Educator Program here! Art for Educator

"The arts are about the qualities of human experiences. Through music, dance, visual arts, drama, and the rest, we give form to our feelings and thoughts about ourselves, and how we experience the world around us." -Sir Ken Robinson The Problem Children in India are deprived of access to joyful learning spaces created through art and expression-nurturing classroomsdespite the Indian National Education Policy of 2020 advocating for the integration of art and SEL into education, the implementation lacks a clear roadmap, disproportionately affecting children from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. This problem affects over 250 million children attending government and low-income private schools, (Ministry of Education, Government of India, 2020) who lack safe spaces for expression and the agency to thrive. The Gaps in India’s Education System? 99th Lack of Art Teachers The UNESCO Report (2021) highlights the nation-wide deprioritization of art education, leading to academic educators at these schools to conduct art class without necessary tools and support Absence of Curriculum The lack of a government prescribed curriculum focusing on mindset building hinders schools from effectively implementing learning opportunity, depriving children of essential development tools. What happens to a child because of these problems? A child within such a system, experiences the lack of an outlet to voice out what they truly want in their education journey. They are not exposed to working with tools and methods that feed into creative thinking, imagination and collaboration. They often grow up to experience low levels of confidence, struggle with communication, building and maintaining healthy relationships & collectively problem solving. This deprivation of holistic and creative learning, hampers their journey as a student in the education system. How does it also affect an educator? Educators feel helpless not knowing how they can create safe and joyful spaces of learning for their students. This is due to the lack of contextualized resources and training in order to cater to student's current needs. Educators also feel overburdened by numerous responsibilities and find themselves unable to learn and grow This restricts them from adopting and practicing innovative learning methodologies. Our Solution Saturday Art Class works as the bridge to solve problems at the systemic level as well as solve problems faced by children in Indian Education. Our programs aim to strengthen and capacitate systems of education that are inclusive of children and educators. This enables children to develop key skills such as communication, collaboration, perseverance, imagination and critical thinking that will help them thrive creatively, socially and emotionally. Our relevance in the National Education Policy 2020 The National Education Policy lists several benefits of a higher quality education system that promotes multidisciplinary learning. It highlights the need for setting up an education system that promotes the holistic scientific and creative development of individuals. The Saturday Art Class Curriculum and our model approach for our flagship programs directly contributes to the National Education Policy and address various components of the policy, specifically talking about bringing arts into our schools. Holistic Development Section 4.2: Expands on the holistic development goal by providing clearer directives for developing empathy, resilience, ethical values, and social skills, in addition to cognitive and academic growth. It also calls for curricula that integrate these elements more explicitly into everyday learning. Integration of Arts and Sports in Curriculum Section 5.6: Strengthens this recommendation by mandating the integration of arts and sports at all levels of education, making them central to the daily curriculum. It highlights experiential learning through these activities as crucial for holistic development. Early Childhood Education and Holistic Learning Section 3.1: Provides guidelines for ECCE, emphasizing the inclusion of creative arts and hands-on learning activities from early childhood to promote comprehensive development across cognitive, social, and emotional domains Teacher Training for Holistic Education Section 10.1: M andating specific training in social-emotional learning, child psychology, and diverse pedagogical strategies to better equip teachers for fostering holistic development. The policy mandates regular teacher training programs focused on understanding child psychology, SEL, and diverse teaching strategies that promote holistic growth. Teachers are encouraged to use pedagogical techniques that foster a safe and supportive learning environment where students feel valued and motivated.

Research output Expressing from the he(ART) Narratives from our classrooms Read our research output here! Parveen didi, a parent of one of our students shares in an interview featured in the Expressing from the he(ART), on why access to Visual Art and SEL is so crucial for her child and the changes it has brought out. Hear what Parveen didi has to say! Narratives from our classrooms Arbaaz | Grade 8 “I can use my imagination! When you take us through the exploration process and introduce different artist’s work or different styles of art and topics, I imagine how it should look, and then I draw it. It feels amazing to create something from my ideas & imagination." Urvi | Grade 7 "I created art to show what happens around me. Gender is given to us at birth, and nobody can be blamed for it, we should be good to everyone.” Datta Sir “The importance of art education is a means for students to express their emotions and experiences , which is particularly valuable for their personal and social well-being. ” Kalyani Miss “Children will build many skills by learning about art.” Download your copy here

Your support can help create safe spaces for our students to help them creatively express themselves! Donate Here! How is my money used? As an organization, we intervene with schools and organizations to implement our unique program that currently works towards helping students embrace the "new normal" through creative expression and exploration within and in the world around them through visual arts learning. We enlighten our students' mindset by introducing them to the life of new modern artists and their works backed by strong curricular content creation and further help them engage in creativity and exploration within their own personal spaces using art. We greatly strive towards individual physical and emotional wellbeing, by strongly leveraging organizational development and growth; thereby socially and emotionally nurturing our team through support and personal development alongside the students we cater to. For more information, mail us at info@saturdayartclass.com

Aiming to build skills in educators through a visual arts and social-emotional learning approach to equip them as Creative Visual Arts Facilitators for their students. Reach out to us! A training program for all educators! Aiming to build skills in educators through a visual arts and social-emotional learning approach to equip them as Creative Visual Arts Facilitators for their students. The program focuses on teachers' training, mirroring NEP's emphasis on empowering educators for effective teaching and recommends integrating art as an important part of classroom learning. We partner with non-profit organizations and schools to train educators in low-income communities for a 9-month period. Partner with us We provide our curriculum, tools, and resources to support this process. Our curriculum Impact is measured through assessments of educator and student growth throughout the year. Impact Report Our curriculum and resources are shared through Art Connect our easy to use WhatsApp bot Art Connect Artworks from our partner organizations' classrooms around the country!

Emerging Shifts in Classrooms through Creative Facilitation Insights from Saturday Art Class’ Visual Arts and SEL training program First Name Last Name Email Company (optional) Phone (optional) Submit

Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success! In the education ecosystem, as we all work towards ensuring our children receive the best and enjoy their journey in learning, at Saturday Art Class, the impact we have been able to create until today has been possible through meaningful partnerships we have created with many other non-profits, enterprises and schools across India over the years. Together, we have created impact and we are always to ready to do more! Our Partners

A collaborative effort between Access the videos here FEATURES OF CREATIVE ART EXPRESS

Awards Cognitive Inc. Prize Penn-GSE Business Plan Competition, 2024 Runner-up, Social Impact President's Innovation Challenge at Harvard Innovation Lab, 2024 Media Features Voices | University of Oxford Addressing the complex challenges of childhood in India with art-based learning Harvard Innovation Labs Celebrating AAPI Innovators and Entrepreneurs at Harvard The Indian Express | Newspaper An exhibition aimed at integrating art in low–income schools, a first in Pune Mid-day | Newspaper How art makes low-income kids future ready Harvard Innovation Labs Bridging India’s Art Education Gap Glific | Case Study Saturday Art Class’s journey into leveraging Whatsapp Chatbot to scale Our Voices & Stories Harvard Podcast Art of Education: How Saturday Art Class is Shaping India’s Next Generation TEDxNMIMS How can the arts change you? Our Why The Nudge TEDxISME Cultivating Minds Through Art InnovatED Manasi Mehan | TFI Cohort'18 End of Year Exhibition 4.0 2023 TEDxYouth@NMS Relief and Recovery during COVID-19 Load More

Pioneering in-depth study into inferring student outcomes, best practices and insights from classrooms achieved through engagement in visual arts in our current context. We aim to identify best practices and gather insights and narratives from our classrooms that can inform how visual arts & SEL can be a crucial medium to build lifelong learning skills and agency to thrive in children. To study this in-depth, we intervened with students from a local government school by providing them regular access to Visual arts and SEL from Grades 1-8 Know more about Our Research Approach with Art Labs Research Reports Opportunities for exposure through excursions Book a Smile India invited us for a unique art workshop led by renowned Italian artist Lorenzo Vitturi as a part of the Olympics In Reel Life Festival by the Film Heritage Foundation. Through Art labs we took 5 children for this workshop where they gathered materials from the ground - waste, leaves, feathers, and more - to create unique collages. Lorenzo captured and guided the children to click portraits, merging everything together to create artwork from their imagination. The result? Extraordinary masterpieces! We partnered with to Coexist by Alia Bhatt. A platform created that highlights and works towards the issues of animal and ecological welfare. Our children worked their magic as these mini-planeteers shared their love for animals and nature through art! They made posters that they would put up in their communities during Diwali to prevent burning firecrackers.

Help us bring the arts closer to our children! Join our Team! Educator, Art Labs The Educator, ArtLabs will lead and facilitate impactful, art-based learning sessions in classrooms, promoting creative expression and social-emotional development among children. This role will involve regular observation and documentation of classroom dynamics, student engagement. This role will shape a holistic growth of the children by driving a community building movement in our model school, thereby creating strong evidence on art and SEL in classrooms. Apply now

Art Speaks Issue 02 | December 2023 First Name Last Name Email Company (optional) Phone (optional) Submit