The fourth edition of Doodle Fest was organised from 23-24 November at Shiv Nadar School in Noida. The fest aimed to provide a platform to students with an environment that challenges them into discovering their talent and skills, and to inspire them to take up drawing and doodling to express their creativity.
It included workshops of design, cartooning, animation, calligraphy, visual storytelling, illustration and much more. Around 500 students from 15 different schools participated in the festival.
Prominent personalities like cartoonist Uday Shankar, storyteller Usha Chhabra, calligrapher Shipra Dutta, illustrator Saurabh Pandey, animator Salil Shail and others were present here to share their thoughts on art.
Ajit Narayan, the founder of Doodle Fest, spoke to Guardian 20 about the initiative. He said, “Art is that one medium of expression, which can communicate without words or sound. One does not have to be literate to communicate through art. I am confident of Doodle, as a regular event, to spread visual literacy.”
The festival reinforces the belief that “we draw to learn, not learn to draw”, thereby facilitating a collaborative platform for artists and experts to interact with young learners.
A fourth standard student, Keisha Ahmed Khan, shared his experience of participating in the fest. He said, “It was adventurous and exciting. I learnt to see things from a different point of view. The fest inspired me to do more artwork and taught me how to enhance my creativity to come up with new and original ideas”.
The event was aimed at fostering a climate in which students can express their thoughts and ideas in forms they feel most comfortable with. Shashi Banerjee, principal, Shiv Nadar School, spoke about how doodling or creating illustrations can enable students to express their inner thoughts better. She said, “Very often, we saw students in the class, sometimes consciously sometimes unconsciously, drawing stuff. But when examined closely, it became evident that a lot was going on in a child’s mind. The school gives that space to children to express themselves in whichever form they are most comfortable in, and doodling or making illustrations could be one of them.”
She further added, “We don’t want to restrict them. The idea was to give them freedom of expression and let them follow their instinct. Every child has a different way of thinking and executing his/her plans. So we just wanted to create that space where the students are able to dig into their creative spots.”