Tomorrow, John Crowe and I head off to India. It’ll take a while to get there — we fly from Boston to New York, then to London Heathrow, and then to Bangalore, arriving at 5 am Tuesday morning (their time). We ought to be plenty beat by then.

Our hosts, Geetha Narayanan http://srishti.ac.in/content/management-deans and Arzu Mistry http://srishti.ac.in/content/artists-residence , just sent an itinerary for the 21 days. I’m breathless.

THE PLAN

Tuesday, October  29 — Try to catch our souls and bodies up so they’re in the same timezone! A jet lag day.

 

Wednesday, October 30th – Visit to the Drishya Learning Centre (see http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/less-about-books-more-about-passion/article4290218.ece   )

October 31st to November 4th – Andaman Islands. We’ll be at ANET — the Andaman and Nicobar Education Team, a research center on these tropical rainforest/coral reef islands. We’ll explore the indigenous ecology and the intertidal zone, snorkle, walk in mangroves at night, and learn about the history of these astonishing tropical islands. See this site for more info: http://anetindia.org/

 
November 5th – In Bangalore with Shabnab Virmani http://www.kabirproject.org/kabir-walk.php and the Kabir Project — see info at http://www.kabirproject.org/

 
November 6th- 10th – Travel to Kutch, a desert region in Gujurat (Ghandi’s state) where the Khamir Collective supports indigenous crafts as sustainable industry. There’s embroidery, metals, wood, weaving, batik, block printing — and more. See this website for details: http://www.khamir.org/

 
November 11th- 17th – Back in Bangalore, we’ll visit and meet the artists who are visiting the Srishti College of Art and Design as part of our interim semester ( we have around 12-15). Here’s some info on the college: http://www.srishti.ac.in/

• During this period, John and Lois will each present something to the Srishti faculty on different days, and meet with the Chair of Srishti’s Doctoral Programme and also with the coordinator of Srishti’s international programmes.
• Winter School is in session, with focus on Oral History and many international faculty. We’ll attend some sessions.
• November 14th, Lois leads a day’s workshop for Srishti faculty interested in Studio Thinking
• November 15th, Director’s Dinner for all visitors hosted by Geetha Narayanan.
• November 16th, the first of the Certad talks hosted at Srishti. This will be a meeting of partners and people Srishti works with closely  in education. Lois will speak at this inaugural event along with two other speakers ( both who work in the arts and education – but who come from very different perspectives:

• Dr Vivek Benegal is a psychologist and neuro-biologist who is working within local schools and has data on the impact of the arts on wellness.
• Dr Jyoti Sahi, one of India’s foremost thinkers, artists and author will talk on the tradition of arts and crafts within the Indian context.

It’s clearly going to be time jammed full. We’re packing and working on getting some sleep, because it doesn’t look like there’ll be a lot of that once we’re there! Stay tuned for more reports and photos.

Lois