Akkamahadevi LS and Shivanayak Dhore

This Grant was Terminated by IFA and the Grantee is ineligible to apply to IFA in the future.

These are two grants made to two teachers one from each taluka representing Bellary district, for an exploration into the atmosphere of Jatres, local cultural fairs, with students and teachers from schools located in the region. This project will help introduce students to the idea of Jatres as a storehouse of living traditions and help students contextualise this experience in terms of what they have learnt through their school texts. Through the eighteen month grant period, the two teachers will attempt to re-introduce Jatres (traditional fairs) as storehouses of living. They will engage their students in an explorative journey to document the social history, changing ecology, food, toys, folk music and dance, the ceremonial rituals etc as perceived through the Jatres. Through this exercise, teachers aim to give children the varied experience of field visits and build observation and reasoning abilities. By doing so, the teachers hope to not only facilitate a more rooted understanding of their cultural experiences but also to draw connections to what they study at school. Teachers will work with the students to re-construct one Jatre within the school to celebrate with the village community making room for exhibiting their learnings from the Jatres at the end of the grant period. The students will document and re-construct a Jatre within the school, which they will celebrate with the village community.

This grant is made possible with support from Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore.