A christmas tree art by Madhav

“In January 2016 a friend sent me a flyer on an art programme called “A Brush With Art”. It sounded interesting but it was across town and my son had a really packed schedule. I decided I would take Madhav for a session and then decide. Fast forward to December 2020 and Madhav continues to attend ABWA. It’s had it’s challenging moments initially when he would put varied art material in his mouth and emerge from the room like he was dipped in paint. His facilitators would serenely forestall my scolding by saying he was just exploring the medium and that everything offered to the children was, though not edible, definitely not toxic! They gave him freedom to do what he wanted with the material presented and he had so much fun and looked forward to the sessions so much, that week after week we kept returning. When the pandemic hit, all his classes came to a standstill. From gypsies who trawled the city from dawn to dusk we became prisoners with nothing to do. ABWA though took up the challenge and reinvented itself. An online class for what had been an intense personal interaction is a difficult bridge and one which necessarily would need the mother interfacing (interfering? always a big ABWA no no).They broached it tentatively but all the kids took to the new format like pros and lockdown suddenly became rainbow hued. As for Madhav he is still exploring enthusiastically but has found better things to eat than art supplies,” says Madhuca Krishnan, Madhav’s mother.