Exposed to learn

[1]

(From left): Varsha, Rupa and Radhika pose with Rupa’s work

For Dharwad-based Radhika Ullur, the Karnataka Karnataka Artists’ Residency at BAR 1 in Bengaluru seems to be one of the turning points in her life. A graduate from Dharwad Srujana College of Fine Arts, the residency has exposed Radhika to art she had never seen before.

Radhika is just one of many art students across the country exposed to the changing arts circuit through these residencies.
Along with Radhika, fine arts graduate Rupa DG from Chikmagalur’s Shantiniketan Arts College and Varsha Deshikan, a master’s degree holder from Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath are in the residency. “It is a very different experience. Before I came for the residency, I didn’t know about installation art, video art and other mixed media practices. The learning here in one week is more than what I would have learnt in a year back in Dharwad,” says Radhika. Sharing a similar story is Rupa, who admits that the gallery visits to NGMA Bengaluru, 1 Shanti Road and meeting artists and interacting with them has exposed her to newer perspectives.
The two girls are among many students who come from smaller towns for residencies at urban art collectives and organisations. Facilitating their stay and providing them a platform, space and resources is what the organisations look at.
“We get a large number of applications from art institutes in Delhi, Mumbai and other metros but don’t get enough applications from state-run colleges. But now the trend has got better with art collectives reaching out to smaller towns and government college students,” says Charu Maithani, programme officer new media and public engagement, Khoj, New Delhi.
Khoj’s Peers Student Residency is one of the popular programmes. The idea of Peers residency, as Charu says, is to bring students to an active art space like Delhi, in order to challenge, question or better their practice.
What do city-students look forward to, is to interact with their rural contemporaries who have original ideas. “Their work is authentic. You see so many mediocre projects in the city. It’s refreshing to see something new,” says Varsha, one of the participants at the BAR 1 residency. While it is a platform that many students vie to be on, the selectors are keen on not only the work but also the enthusiasm of the student. “We look for a person who is eager to learn. Those from a rural background have inhibitions but we have to break the wall to find out who is worth getting the residency,” says Smitha Cariappa, an artist and one
of the selectors of a residency.