Written by Siyu Zhang, Festival Intern (Digital content creator)
Pupils from St Cuthbert’s School, Kenton, Newcastle learned about traditional Indian culture by making traditional Kathputli puppets from Rajasthan with artist Lily Daniels from GemArts.
This was one in a series of Asian Creative Journeys workshops being delivered by GemArts’ artists in schools in February and March, commissioned by our Express Yourself: North East Festival of Languages to provide children and young people with the opportunity to learn about Indian and Chinese culture, language and creative traditions.
Pupils were really engaged in using their imaginations by drawing different colours, adding small decorations and drawing various patterns to make lively colourful puppets. Lily taught children how to say the names of different colours in India when looking at different fabrics during the puppet making workshop. The workshop also used visual art, highlighted the decorative art of miniatures and the theatrical puppetry of Rajasthan, while also familiarising the children with words and fun facts about the culture of Rajasthan, the largest state in India.
Watch the short film about the activity and the impact of these types of events on children and young people by playing the film opposite or by clicking here
Today has been really amazing. I had a lot of fun designing a puppet.
Pupil at St Cuthbert’s Primary School, Kenton
Alasdair Bright, Teacher, St Cuthbert’s School, Kenton, Newcastle
This event is wonderful and the children are absolutely loving it. It also helps bring people together as well as give the children opportunities themselves to have conversations with people from different countries and cultures.
The Festival is fantastic – we’ve signed up for as much as we can – we’ve got this session, we’ve had Arabic tutors coming in, we’ve got Yoruba sessions, we’ve joined in all the competitions – all the children in the school have had the opportunity to join in – and it’s all facilitated by experts – and it’s all free!
Lily Daniels, GemArts
It’s really important to celebrate cultures and languages in schools through art, which is a universal language. We are really happy to be delivering lots of workshops in schools as part of the Festival.
GemArts is also providing pre-recorded activities for schools that they can use in classrooms up to 31st March. It is a great way to help pupils learn about the artforms’ cultural importance, gain valuable insights into cultural celebrations and festivals and participate by expressing themselves creatively through puppetry, dance, drumming and origami.
The Asian Creative Journeys workshops were offered to schools based in the North East of England, to inspire them with creative activities from South Asian and Chinese cultures led by GemArts artists and facilitators. Delivered in schools and adapted to age and setting the different workshops activities options include:
- Bollywood and Indian Classical dance
- Indian Visual Arts such as Rangoli, Indian Miniature painting, Henna Designs, Gond Art, Lantern Making
- Celebrate Holi – the Indian festival of Spring, Colour and new life
- Chinese Arts including origami, kite making, papercutting puppets, small or large dragon making, lantern making, and calligraphy.
- Chinese New Year Celebrations
Culture Box Asia – GemArts pre-recorded workshops for schools available until 31st March
As part of the Festival, teachers can still register for Culture Box Asia – four FREE pre-recorded online workshops developed for pupils aged 7-18 by GemArts. Each workshop celebrates South East Asian or Chinese arts, music, language and culture. They can be delivered in a school or community setting with primary and secondary aged children. These are designed to be fun, engaging and interactive. Children can watch and participate in one or all four: Kathputli Puppets, Bharatanatyam Dance workshop, Dhol Drumming workshop and Origami House .
Register by emailing lily@gemarts.org with the name of the activity (Culture Box Asia), your school name and address, teacher contact details and the number and year groups of pupils who will take part.
About the author
Siyu Shang is one of five Festival interns from Northumbria and Newcastle Universities producing articles and digital content for the Festival this year. The Festival wants to provide opportunities for students to gain real-world experience to help them in their future careers.
Siyu is studying at Newcastle University, doing a Masters in International Multimedia Journalism. She works as a broadcaster at Newcastle Universities radio study and writes for the student newspaper.
Acknowledgements
- Special thanks to Lily from GemArts for bringing the engaging and fascinating workshop to pupils.
- Thanks to Sarah Edgar (Newcastle City Council) and volunteers for supporting the event to run so smoothly.
- Thanks to the North East Combined Authority for providing funding for the Festival to commission the activity
This project was funded by the North East Combined Authority
About GemArts
GemArts is an award winning arts organisation based in the North East of England which creates and programmes high quality concerts, events, festivals, workshops and commissions with regional, national and international artists across all art forms.
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