Kakar ART | Blog
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Empowerment Through Art
Katharina connects individuals from around the world with socially engaged people and projects in India, utilizing art as a tool to mutually learn, experience and engage with themes such as environmental issues, wildlife, water and garbage.
Art Camps on Environment & Sustainability
2018 Goa - The Elephant Project
Kakar Art Collective & Tara Trust Workshops
In February 2018, Dr. Alka Pande, curator of the Gaj Yatra of Wildlife Trust India asked Katharina Kakar to contribute an elephant for their nationwide campaign to create awareness about the shrinking numbers of the Asian elephant. Katharina, together with facilitators of Tara Trust, decided to involve 60 children in the process. They prepared summer schools for tribal and migrant children in Goa to learn about the elephant, its environment, the need of corridors, etc. through movies, pictures, discussions and art. Three summer schools were conducted with children aged six to twelve years. The results of these amazing workshops and fun experiences were integrated into collages by Katharina to become part of the body of her elephant sculpture.
2013 Chennai - Water & Environment
Tara Trust & Partner Institutions in Chennai
Dates: October 4th – 11th
Location: Dakshina Chitra Heritage Village
Children: Care and Compassion Children’s Home – Panjim, Goa & Nalamdana – Chennai
Activities: Day 1 - Introductions and tour of Dakshina Chitra Heritage Village. Day 2 - Sounds & movement of water workshop and presentation followed by plastic bottle boat making. Day 3 - Clay moulding, theatre and mask making workshops. Day 4 - Learning the ins and outs of garment construction with faculty from the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Chennai. Day 5 - Morning yoga and a tour of the Madras Crocodile Bank and MGM Dizzee World theme park. Day 6 - Dancing and painting workshops followed by a tour of the Royal Enfield factory. Day 7 - Collective painting workshop and final exhibition of student works.
2013 Bangalore - Water & Environment
Tara Trust & Partner Institutions in Bangalore
Dates: April 17th – 27th
Location: IIIT-B, Electronic City
Children: Mark Fernandes Gov’t High School - Calangute, Goa & Sparcha Trust - Bangalore
Activities: Day 1 - Introduction and football workshop with DREAM A DREAM Foundation. Day 2 - Start of YES – Youth Empowerment Seminar hosted by Art of Living and meeting with Director of IIITB – Professor Sadagopan. Day 3 - Continued seminar and film screening of WALL-E with the Student Activity Council's Movie Club. Day 4 - Tour of INFOSYS campus and plastic bottle boat making. Day 5 - Bangalore city tour and environmental consciousness and screen printing workshops at Jaaga. Day 6 - Water awareness presentation with children from Kumaran School followed by photography and dream city building workshops. Day 7 - Last day of YES seminar, making of a waste material aquarium & interviews with IIITB media. Day 8 - Craft projects with plastic bottles and football workshops. Day 9 - Kathak 101 workshop with Vibha Ramaswami. Day 10 - Drum sessions, mural painting & final exhibition of works.
Art Camps on Creativity & Imagination
2016 Goa - Serendipity Arts Festival
Katharina Kakar & Tara Trust Workshops
Between August and December 2016, Katharina Kakar spearheaded a project, where a selected group of 17 tribal and migrant children was introduced to art workshops that touched upon all senses. These experimental workshops opened the children to a new way of looking and accessing art. Dealing with the power of movement, touch, color, shape and music the children experienced the relationship between their emotions and the creative outcome. Based on these experiences, the group created an abstract installation, related to the issue of power and vulnerability that was exhibited at the Serendipity Arts Festival in December 2016.
2015 Chennai - Dance & Photography
Tara Trust & Partner Institutions in Chennai
Dates: January 23rd – 30th
Location: Kalakshetra
Children: St. Anthony's Girls Home – Verna, Goa
& Sri Shankara Matriculation School – Chennai
Activities: Day 1 - Introductions and evening presentations by the student fraternity of Kalakshetra. Day 2 - Rhythm & movement exercises, an introduction to photography and dance performances by Chettinad Shree Hari Vidyalayam. Day 3 - Introduction to Bharatnatyam with Mrs. Priya Murli followed by drawing and photography workshops. Day 4 - Continued dance & photography workshops, outdoor sculpting and team building exercises. Day 5 - A lesson on discipline & punctuality, followed by painting, printmaking and photography activities. Day 6 - Natural dyes workshop and a final round of dance & posture exercises. Day 7 - A culmination of the the week by presenting a collective dance performance.
2012 Mumbai - Creative Engagement
Tara Trust & Partner Institutions in Mumbai
Dates: February 2th – March 4th
Location: The Tata Institute of Social Sciences in collaboration with Khulla Asaman, an arts initiative of TISS
Children: Care and Compassion Children’s Home – Panjim, Goa & VOICE - Mumbai
Activities: Day 1 - Introduction and creative writing workshop with Surendra Singh of BlueGog. Day 2 - Meeting with Friend of Friends, Mumbai and field trip to SNEHA, Dharavi. Day 3 - Recycling workshop with Designers & Creatives in Design. Day 4 - Painting of 1000 T-shirts with children from Salaam Bombay, Dharavi Rocks & Khula Asaman. Day 5 - City tour of Mumbai with students of Cathedral & John Canon School, VT. Day 6 - Interactive theatre workshop with Shruti Sashidaran from Theatre Professionals, Mumbai. Day 7 - Craft & music workshops with Khula Asaman, TISS and the children of Dharavi Rocks. Day 8 - Exhibition and presentation of the students' works. Day 9 - Painting workshop with the Wall Project
2011 Delhi - The 1000 Crane Project
Tara Trust & Partner Institutions in Delhi
Dates: October 12th – 22nd
Location: Sanskriti Kendra – New Delhi
Children: Don Bosco Mobile School – Vasco, Goa & Dil Se Campaign of Centre for Equity Studies – New Delhi
Activities: Day 1 - Introduction of students and campus, origami, movement and breathing workshops. Day 2 - Bird watching, yoga, journaling and self exploration through theatre. Day 3 - Start of 1000 Crane T-shirt painting, presentations and collaborative painting with 10 professional artists. Day 4 - Full day city tour of Delhi. Day 5 - Recycling and clay modelling workshops. Day 6 - Paper sculpting, origami and music workshops. Day 7 - Waste textile collages, dance and rhythm workshops. Day 8 - Rugby match, continued collage making and campus party. Day 9 - Exhibition and presentation of the week's creations.
2010 Sakad / Madhya Pradesh - 2 Schools in Exchange
Tara Trust & Partner Institutions in MP
In 2010, Katharina visited the Adharshils Learning Center, a school for deprived adivasi (tribal) children near Sakad in Barwani district (Madhya Pradesh). It was founded by Amit and Jayashree Bhatnagar in a region which is majority Barela: an adivasi clan that traces its roots back to the Bhil tribes of Gujarat and Rajasthan.
Katharina initiated an art exchange project with a group of Adharshila children and children in a school in Berlin. Children from both schools told their stories of how they live and what they enjoy doing through drawings that were scanned and sent across the continents. Exhibitions of what they learned from each other were held in both schools thereafter.
Below: Ravindra depicts his family's village in Madhya Pradesh (right) while Alexandre illustrates playing football with his friends in Berlin (left)
2010 SKNS / Rajasthan
Tara Trust & Partner Institutions in Rajasthan
Between 2012 and 2014, Tara Trust continued with arts workshops with children as well as teacher’s training programs of the Maitreya school in Bodhgaya, the Naveen nursery in Varanasi and the the SKNS school in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, a school for children with disabilities. The Maitreya School benefits impoverished children from Bodh Gaya and neighboring villages, while the Naveen nursery and primary school in Varanasi educates students from various low-income group families.
We further held workshops and regularly interacted with one of our collaborators, Udayan Care, in New Delhi.
Upcoming 2022: Video Project with Girls in different communities
Jamyang boarding school for deprived children (Leh/Ladakh)
Ladakh’s village population is a mix of different tribes, many of whom speak their own dialect and maintain their own cultural traditions, without a chance of getting a decent education. In 2006, two highly respected Buddhist monks in Ladakh, were entrusted by the Dalai Lama with the task of building a school in order to help some of the poorest families to get a free education for their children.
For the Jamyang School it is important that at least half their students are girls. All admitted children come from predominantly difficult family backgrounds: families that are broken due to divorce or death of one or both parents, and children who face child labor in the city or road construction since their parents neither possess land nor have a job to feed them.
Katharina Kakar supports the school through sponsorships since the first batch of 50 children was admitted in 2008. Since then the school has grown to over 200 students, mainly from villages near the Pakistan border: Hanu and Baima (Leh District) as well as Darchik and Garkon (Kargil District).
The Sponsorship-Program:
Since 2008, when the Jamyang school opened its doors and admitted its first students, Katharina Kakar helped to find donors to sponsor the education of the children. Every year staff and volunteers of Tara Trust travel to the school and spend a substantial amount of time with the children, teachers and caregivers to evaluate the progress.
The maintenance of the school is predominantly financed by the Dalai Lama Trust (http://dalailamatrustindia.org/education/projects/jamyang-school/). However, the school has to find its own sponsors for the students. You can help to change the life of a child with only 25 Euros / 2000 Rupees per month.
The cost to support the basic needs of a child in the Jamyang boarding school is 25.000 Rupees per year. Please make your annual contribution to our account below or send a cheque in the name of Tara Trust. A donation receipt for tax exemption and an annual report about the Jamyang school and its activities will be send to you.
International donors can give the equivalent of 300 Euros and send it to our German support group, where it is collected and sent once a year to the school.
How is your money spent?
Tara Trust helps to raise funds and find partners for a few, hand selected projects within India that are transparent and outstanding in their work. 100% of your donation will reach the project and will be used for the benefit of the children. The amount will be utilized for meals, medical caretaking, school materials, clothing as well as a small “safety budget” for emergencies (i.e. hospitalization of a child).
If you have questions, please be in touch: kpkakar@gmail.com
If you want to give an education to a child, please select an info pack below: