Mumbai 3rd April 2018 : Smile Foundation, a national level development organisation and The Pomegranate Workshop present the culmination of a dynamic arts program at The Maulana Azad School, Dharavi on 11th April 2018 at 11 am.

Students of grades 5,6,7,8 at Maulana Azad School, supported under the Mission Education project of Smile Foundation,have been part of 2 arts based programs conducted by The Pomegranate Workshop – My Voice, My Community and Graphic Novel Making over the last 3 months.

On 11th April the students will present their Graphic Novel anthology and also exhibit all their art and paintings which they have worked on in the course of these two dynamic programs which focussed on stories and art from the community and neighbourhood.

The students will present the works themselves, including a beautiful wall painting which they accomplished during the program.

About My Voice, My Community : This arts based program had the students exploring their own neighbourhood, the inhabitants, streets, shops and people stories which they then translated into art of their own. Right from three dimensional forms to cityscape cutouts and an entire wall painting, the students have spared no effort to translate their perspective through paints and various other materials to tell their story. The lead facilitator for this module is Madhumita Srivastava, an architect and graphic designer who completed her post graduation from Parsons Design School, New York.

About Graphic Novel Making : The students reflected on stories they want to tell, scenes they would like to depict even as they practised the skills of sketching, understanding body postures, depicting objects as well as the grammar of comics which include understanding comic panels, interaction of image and text and genres of comics to tell their stories. The lead facilitator for the Graphic Novel module is Chaitanya Modak, a comic book creator, designer and alumni of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.

Venue for the exhibition – Maulana Azad School, Opp block No 5, Transit Camp, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, Dharavi (near Dharavi police station)

About Smile Foundation :

Smile Foundation is a national level development organization benefitting directly over 600,000 children and their families every year, through more than 250 live welfare projects on education, healthcare, livelihood and women empowerment, in over 950 remote villages and slums across 25 states of India.Adopting a life cycle approach of development, Smile Foundation focuses its interventions on children, their families and the community.

About The Pomegranate Workshop :

The Pomegranate Workshop is a Mumbai-based arts education company that has, for the last eleven years, worked with leading schools to deliver co-curricular arts programming. Pomegranate’s student theatre productions have been featured at the National Center for the Performing Arts, Mumbai and in 2016, Pomegranate’s Antigone 2.0 was picked in the top 10 Theatre Picks of Mumbai by the Mumbai Theatre Guide. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, Pomegranate’s student films have made it to an aggregate of 15 International Film festivals including Norway, Los Angeles, Turkey, Kenya, Bucharest and have won several awards including ‘Best Film’ in the youth category at the 19th International Childrens Film Festival of India (ICFFI). Pomegranate has worked with the National Gallery of Modern Art, The Prince of Wales Museum and has conducted several learning events in collaboration with the Australian Consulate in Mumbai. Pomegranate works with several large education NGOs on capacity building programs.